[{"bbox": [97, 153, 1133, 206], "category": "Text", "text": "commitments made, the Government, the parliament, the private sector and civil society, and the whole country\nare facing many problems and challenges."}, {"bbox": [97, 218, 1133, 510], "category": "Text", "text": "First, Timorese government negotiators, parliamentarians and civil society and private sector representatives do not have adequate trade knowledge and skills to effectively participate in the accession negotiations and understand the implications of integration into ASEAN, WTO and EPA. To conduct three parallel major accession negotiations, the country needs a good size of well-trained and skilled trade negotiators and advisors who have a full understanding of the issues, procedures and implications of the integration and accession to these agreements and organisations. Those agreements are highly technical in nature and full of specific rules and jargons. Some of Timorese trade negotiators have no technical knowledge and training on those negotiating issues and procedures. They are not familiar with the offering and counteroffering in the trade agreement negotiation process. Some of them do not even have a good command of English, which is one of the official languages of the WTO (other two official languages of the WTO are French and Spanish) and other trade agreement negotiations. English is also the working language of ASEAN."}, {"bbox": [97, 522, 1133, 787], "category": "Text", "text": "Second, the country does not have the capacity to assess the impacts (both positive and negative) of those agreements on the country, its business, and the human rights of all people. The ASEAN membership, WTO accession and EPA negotiations will bring tremendous changes to the economy, business operation, and the lives of people. However, the government, the private sector as well as the academic and civil society organizations do not have the required capacity and skills to conduct economic, social and environmental impacts of those agreement negotiations on the country, including from a human rights and gender equality perspective. In particular, some of the businesses and people may be negatively affected by the implementation of these agreements and membership. The government is supposed to have the mitigating measures in place to make necessary adjustments or compensation to those negatively affected businesses and people to offset the negative impacts on their businesses and lives."}, {"bbox": [97, 800, 1133, 1118], "category": "Text", "text": "Third, the Parliament does not have the capacity to review and ratify agreements and adopt or amend the legislation required for the implementation of the commitments made during the agreement negotiations. During and after the agreement negotiations, other partners are expecting Timor-Leste to conduct the legislative reforms (through a Legislative Action Plan), to adopt or revise relevant laws in order to comply with the ASEAN/WTO/EPA rules and obligations. As a democratic country, the Parliament should review the agreements and memberships negotiated by the government negotiators, assess their impacts on the country, the economy and its people, and eventually adopt or revise relevant laws to implement the commitments made under those agreements. Therefore, those Parliamentarians, particularly those sitting in Committee D, responsible for the review and ratification of the negotiated trade agreements, should be equipped with the knowledge and skills to review those signed agreements and revise or adopt relevant laws accordingly. Relevant Parliamentarians, as well as these government negotiators/advisors and civil society and private sector representatives will need a lot of technical assistance and capacity building for these agreements and membership negotiations, accession and implementation."}, {"bbox": [97, 1130, 1133, 1422], "category": "Text", "text": "Fourth, Timor-Leste does not have an adequate trade negotiation coordinating and consultation mechanism in place to formulate positions to negotiate the agreements to benefit their businesses and the people. These agreements cover the entire economy and all sectors. Trade agreement negotiations, which primarily focus on market access on goods and services, trade and investment rules, and domestic reforms for compliance, are a take-and-give exercise. As a result, the leading negotiating ministries (MFAC, CMEA, and MTCI) should adopt the \"whole-government\" or even the \"whole-country\" approach to coordinate with other line government ministries/agencies, the Parliament, civil society representing rights-holders, private sector, and other interested parties to formulate negotiating positions in the process. In particular, the three major agreement and membership negotiations under ASEAN, WTO and EPA are overlapping, and negotiators and advisors will have to synchronize and coordinate their positions on many negotiating issues with various stakeholders and interested parties all together to advance the negotiations and implementation for the best interest of the country and the people."}, {"bbox": [97, 1434, 1133, 1621], "category": "Text", "text": "Last but most important, the private sector and civil society organisations do not have the required knowledge and information to actively provide inputs to government in the negotiation process. The public awareness of the trade agreement negotiations and implementation as well as accession to ASEAN, is very low, including the private sector businesses. Government does not really trade but private sector companies do. Government representatives are negotiating these agreements on behalf of the private sector. Therefore, the private sector, including women-led businesses, should be invited to actively provide inputs on various negotiating topics/issues to government delegates to strike a better deal for the private sector businesses. After the conclusions of negotiations, private"}, {"bbox": [1038, 1681, 1143, 1705], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 6 of 22"}]