Following the success of last year's study tour, the Virtual Institute organized a three week study tour for 23 students on the Masters in International Trade Policy programme at the Univeristy of the West Indies (UWI), from the 8th to the 26th May.
Vi university member coordinator, Pamela Coke-Hamilton, who set up the masters programme at UWI, believes the study tour gives students a valuable insight into the workings of the Geneva Institutions and builds on their academic studies in the classroom. For the potential future makers and shapers of Caribbean trade policy, the study tour provides an opportunity to put people in contact with experts in the field and to become more familiar with how the major institutions supporting international trade impact the
Over the three weeks of the tour, students visited UNCTAD, the International Trade Centre, the World Trade Organisation and the World Intellectual Property Organisation. They participated in 42 workshops and presentations, involving over 45 presenters/facilitators from the four organizations, as well as outside speakers from the International Labour Organisation and the Whorld Health Organisation. In addition, the group also met and discussed with Ambassadors from the permanent missions of Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago
The tour was designed to present to students the work of UNCTAD, the ITC, the WIPO and the WTO, and to discuss some of the most pressing issues and questions currently of importance in international trade policy, especially in relation to the
Following the conclusion of their stay in