EDS First is committed to a rules based multilateral trading system based on the principles of fairness, transparency and openness.  Trade agreements can improve market access across all areas of trade — goods, services and investment — and help to maintain and stimulate the competitiveness of developing country firms. This benefits their consumers as well through access to an increased range of better-value goods and services.

EDS First believes that international trade and investment is critical for most developing and emerging economies and that the best way to ensure that their interests are promoted is through the multilateral trading system and the various preferential trade agreements as sanctioned by the WTO.  The WTO system contributes to development as lower income countries need flexibility in the time they take to implement trade agreements and the agreements themselves inherit the earlier provisions of GATT that allow for special assistance and trade concessions for developing countries.

Aid for Trade supports developing countries’ efforts to better integrate into and benefit from the global rules-based trading system, implement domestic reform, and make a positive economic impact on the lives of their citizens. EDS First believes Aid for trade is a mechanism for reducing poverty and lifting living standards through sustainable trade related economic growth.

As such, EDS First is keen to undertake trade research, trade policy development, trade training courses and aid for trade projects which are of direct benefit to the public and private sectors of developing and emerging countries.  Examples of projects undertaken by EDS First staff include:

  • Advice and briefing papers for political leaders on trade law, trade economics and trade and development issues for example to former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on trade and the MDGs or to former Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop on WTO dispute settlement rules and on Aid for Trade policy and case-studies.
  • Participated in a review of Australia’s funding to multilateral trade agencies which included consultations and research on the effectiveness of contributions to UNCTAD, the ITC, the WTO (including EIF), WIPO, the International Law Development Organisation and the Agency for International Trade Information and Cooperation. All of the recommendations from the review were implemented by DFAT in 2010-2011.
  • Funded by US Aid, EDS First has designed and implemented comprehensive 3 month trade training programs for Timor Leste trade officials and representatives from their private sector in Dili. Similar trade policy and negotiation skills training programs have been conducted for African and Pacific Island trade officials.
  • EDS First has undertaken a number of applied research contributions on trade issues, the most recent being a comprehensive paper on the Role of Aid for Trade in assisting SMEs to comply with Sustainability Standards, published by ICTSD, 2018 with an updated extract since published by the Global Trade Professionals Alliance, December, 2018.
  • EDS First staff have presented at a range of global trade events including on the priorities for Aid for Trade flows to the Pacific at an OECD forum in 2015 and more recently to the Global Aid for Trade Review 2017 in Geneva on the role of Aid for Trade in support of women led SMEs and private sector development.
  • Designed for MFAT and DFAT an Implementation Unit that supports the implementation of the PACER Plus Agreement, which is a regional trade and development agreement signed in 2017 by 11 Pacific countries.
  • Provided the European Union’s Sustainability Impact Assessments (SIAs) in support of the free trade agreement (FTA) being negotiated between the European Union and the Republic of Indonesia.

Labour Market Activity

In addition to its wide range of trade policy advice and aid for trade programs EDS First also utilises expert economists and trade specialists to undertake specific poverty and labour market analysis within a sector, country or region, for example:

  • Pacific Regional and Kiribati: EDS First experts have conducted a number of labour market studies over recent years in the Pacific region, the most recent being an ongoing program for the Government of Kiribati. The studies provide as accurate information as possible on future job market prospects for the people of Kiribati and especially for young people embarking on studies at the Kiribati Institute of Technology, the Australian Pacific Training Coalition or at universities such as the University of the South Pacific.  Detailed reports and recommendations on how educational institutions and the Government need to align educational policy and training course to future labour demand locally and in the region, requires extensive consultations with public and private sectors, local NGOs and international donors and implicitly involve poverty, disability and gender analysis, and an awareness of the implications of climate change impact on the islands of Kiribati.
  • APEC: Undertook a study of uneven growth and the requirements for inclusive development for the APEC Secretariat in 2010, requiring comparative analysis of factors leading uneven growth in PNG, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia and Canada, with recommendations on policy variables of the most significance in closing income gaps and supportive of more inclusive and sustainable development.