ESCAP-ECA-ECLAC workshop Regional Digital Trade Integration Index (RDTII): findings and implications from Asia-Pacific, Africa, and LAC

Yann Duval is currently Chief of Trade Policy and Facilitation Section at UN-ESCAP, the regional branch of the United Nations Secretariat for Asia and the Pacific. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Duval has conducted research and delivered technical assistance and advisory services on trade policy and facilitation throughout Asia and the Pacific, including on the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement. He spearheaded the development of the Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT), as well as, interalia, the creation of the ESCAP-World Bank Trade Cost Database, the UN Global Survey on Trade Facilitation and Paperless Trade Implementation and the online Trade Intelligence and Negotiation Adviser (TINA).

Dr. Duval was also instrumental in the development of the United Nations Network of Experts for Paperless Trade and Transport in Asia and the Pacific (UNNExT) and the negotiation of a new intergovernmental Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-Border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific, a UN treaty entered into force in February 2021.

Prior to joining the UN, he held faculty positions at the Asian Institute of Technology and Washington State University, USA.

Ms. Witada Anukoonwattaka is a core researcher for the division, in particular the Trade Policy and Facilitation Section, and leading the DigiSRII 1.0 project of ESCAP. Her research areas cover economic impacts of trade and investment policies as well as contemporary trade  issues of Asia-Pacific countries including trade tensions, global value chains, regional integration, services and digital-trade policies, and trade policies to support sustainable development.  She has also run and served as a resource person for capacity-building programmes, particularly those related to evidence-based policymaking and research. Before joining ESCAP, she was a lecturer of the Faculty of Economics at Thammasat University, Thailand, and also worked  in the advisory team of Thailand’s minister of industry, foreign affairs, and commissioner of Thailand’s National Telecommunications Commission. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Melbourne, Australia. 

Simon Mevel is an Economic Affairs Officer in the African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC) within the Regional Integration and Trade Division (RITD) of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Prior to joining the UN in 2011, he had been working successively for the University of Pau (France), the Centre d’Etudes Prospectives et d’Informations internationales (CEPII) in Paris, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the World Bank, both in Washington DC. He has over 17 years of experience in assessing trade and environmental reforms with a focus on development issues, and more than 40 publications to date. He has developed and conducted a number of capacity building programmes, particularly on trade policy analysis, in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In 2020, he was awarded the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) Research Fellow distinction for the period 2020-2023. Mr. Mevel holds a PhD in international economics from the University of Bordeaux, France.

Henry Gao is Professor of law at Singapore Management University and Dongfang Scholar Chair Professor at Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade. With law degrees from three continents, he started his career as the first Chinese lawyer at the WTO Secretariat. Before moving to Singapore in late 2007, he taught law at University of Hong Kong, where he was also the Deputy Director of the East Asian International Economic Law and Policy Program. He has taught at the IELPO program in Barcelona and the Academy of International Trade Law in Macau, and was the Academic Coordinator to the first Asia-Pacific Regional Trade Policy Course officially sponsored by the WTO. Widely published on issues relating to China and WTO, Henry has advised many national governments as well as the WTO, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, APEC and ASEAN on trade issues. He sits on the Advisory Board of the WTO Chairs Program, which was established by the WTO Secretariat in 2009 to promote research and teaching on WTO issues in leading universities around the world. He is also a member of editorial board of Journal of Financial Regulation, which was launched by Oxford University Press in 2014.

Dr. Martina F. Ferracane is a Research Fellow at the Robert Schuman Center of Advanced Studies of the European University Institute, where she manages the Digital Trade Integration Project.

She is a regular consultant for several institutions including the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, and the World Bank.

Javier López González is a Senior Economist at the Trade and Agriculture Directorate of the OECD. His recent work focuses on issues related to trade in the digital era: developing frameworks for the analysis of digital trade, including in the context of exploring what market openness means in the 21st century; investigating regulatory approaches to cross-border data flows; and identifying potential economic costs and benefits of digital trade. He has previously worked on the drivers and implications of participation in global value chains. Javier holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Sussex.

Kati Suominen is the Founder and CEO of Nextrade Group that helps governments, multilateral development banks, and Fortune 500 technology companies enable trade through technology. Nextrade's more than 50 clients include the World Bank, IFC, IDB, ADB, USAID, UK FCDO, Mastercard, Visa, Google, and eBay, among many others. Dr. Suominen has ideated and built dozens of data and analytical products and pilot initiatives as well as eight global initiatives and public-private-partnerships to enable digital trade - including, most recently, the Alliance for eTrade Development I and II between 14 leading companies and USAID to enable SME ecommerce in developing nations. She also serves as Adjunct Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Adjunct Professor at UCLA Anderson School of Management. Earlier in her career, she served as Trade Economist at the Inter-American Development Bank and Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Dr. Suominen is the author and editor of over 120 papers and 10 peer-reviewed books on trade, globalization and technology with leading academic presses, most recently Revolutionizing World Trade: How Disruptive Technologies Open Opportunities for All (Stanford University Press, 2019). She is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. PhD, University of California, San Diego; MBA, Wharton School of Business; MA Boston University. 

Emmanuelle Bugeau is a Consultant in the African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC) within the Regional Integration and Trade Division (RITD) of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Prior to joining the UN in 2022, she had been working for the French Treasury and the French Embassy in Ethiopia and to the African Union, covering economic issues at the core of the Ethiopian, Djiboutian and African Union projects and reforms. She has also experience in working with public and private sectors and international organizations. Ms. Emmanuelle Bugeau holds a French-Italian double master’s degree in International Relations with a specialization in risks management and economics of development in Africa and Asia.

Ms Yasmin Ismail is a Programme Officer at CUTS International Geneva, an NGO catalysing the pro-trade, pro-equity voices of the Global South in trade and development debates in Geneva.

Yasmin has been leading CUTS’ research and technical assistance projects for Geneva delegations and Capital officials of developing countries on e-commerce and the digital economy since 2019. Her research interests and publications also cover the multilateral trading system, regional trade agreements, special and differential treatment for developing countries, trade and gender and trade and environment linkages in the context of the WTO and the UNFCCC.

She holds two master’s degrees in Economics of Development and International and European Law from the University of Grenoble-Alpes in France. Prior to joining CUTS, Yasmin served as a Projects Manager at Global Partners Governance, Ltd., a UK-based International Consultancy on political institutions reform and governance. She also served as International Cooperation Specialist at the Egyptian Cabinet Information and Decision Support Centre.

Manfred KOUTY holds a Ph.D in Economics, and is a Lecturer at the International Relations Institute of Cameroon (IRIC) of University of Yaounde II. He is also associate professor at Trade Policy Training Centre in Africa (TRAPCA, Arusha, Tanzania) and at the Pan African University, Institute Of Governance, Humanities And Social Science (PAUGHSS). He is the author of several publications.

Esther Nali is a Technical Valuation Officer and a Trade Policy Analyst at Uganda Revenue Authority, Customs Department since 2009. She holds a Master of Science Degree in International Trade Policy and Trade Law from Lund University of Sweden.

Esther has written a number of research papers which include among others; the impact of tariffs on Uganda’s economy, the impact of Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) flexibilities of the WTO on access to medicines in Uganda and participated in drafting the e-Commerce Working Document for Uganda Revenue Authority. Before joining Uganda Revenue Authority, she worked as a Deputy Director for SOS Children’s Villages Uganda and Later founded a Non- Governmental Organization (Springs of Zion for Children and Widows Foundation),www.springsofzion.org. The Organization trains farmers to add value to their agricultural commodities to participate in the global value chain and tap into the AfCFTA market and the rest of the world.

Tapiwa Cheuka is a Trade Policy Officer at the African Union Commission. He leads the digital economy file under the Department of Economic Development, Trade, Industry and Mining. Tapiwa is an economist by training with a focus on international trade. His current focus areas also include trade policy and trade finance in Africa with the primary objective of boosting intra-Africa trade as well as increasing Africa’s share of global trade.

Fandi Achmad is a Doctoral researcher at Oxford Technology and Management Center for Development (TMCD) and a DPhil Candidate in International Development at the University of Oxford. He is passionate about digital trade policies and their relationship with the development of developing countries. Fandi held various positions in the past, including in the Executive Office of the President of Indonesia, where he monitored the country’s strategic issues on industrial and trade policies, and in the ASEAN Secretariat, where he served the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Working Group on Competition negotiations. Fandi regularly engages as a consultant for UN ESCAP, the OECD and St. Gallen Endowment for Prosperity Through Trade (SGEPT), where he monitors the trade and digital trade policy changes in several Asian countries. Fandi holds a Master of Advanced Studies in Economics from KU Leuven, Belgium, and a Master of Public Policy from the University of Michigan, USA. He was also awarded a Young Leader for Indonesia by McKinsey & Co. in 2010.