Launch of Trade-in-Services Modules in Trade Intelligence and Negotiation Advisor (TINA)

Dr. Yann Duval is currently Chief of Trade Policy and Facilitation at ESCAP, the regional branch of the United Nations Secretariat for Asia and the Pacific. Over the past 20 years at UN ESCAP, Mr. 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 Agreements. He spearheaded the development of the Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT), as well as the creation of the ESCAP-World Bank Trade Cost Database and the UN Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation.

His trade policy research and advocacy work has emphasized the importance of mainstreaming sustainable development objectives into trade policy and facilitation. He has led the preparation of UN ESCAP flagship reports on trade and investment in collaboration with UNCTAD and UNEP, examining the role of non-tariff measures in sustainable development as well as how to promote climate-smart trade and investment. During the COVID-19 crisis, he coordinated a UN-wide initiative to develop model provisions in trade agreements for trade in time of crisis, including in cooperation with WTO and civil society organizations. His current work focuses on leveraging digital trade for sustainable development and the design of sustainable development provisions in regional trade agreements.

Mr. Duval was instrumental in the development and negotiation of the Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-Border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific, a UN treaty which entered into force in 2021. He has overseen readiness assessments for cross-border paperless trade in over a dozen countries and co-led the preparation of the WTO/ESCAP/UNCITRAL Cross-Border Paperless Trade Toolkit (2022) as well as the UN online course on Next-Generation Trade Facilitation.

He has actively promoted the use of advanced information and communication technologies for research and building capacity in policy making, including through the launch of the online Trade Intelligence and Negotiation Adviser (TINA), a tool aimed at supporting developing countries in preparing for trade negotiations.

Prior to joining the UN, He held faculty positions and taught economics and management at the Asian Institute of Technology and Washington State University, USA. He holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics from Kansas State University and an engineering degree from PURPAN Toulouse, France.

Alexey Kravchenko is Economic Affairs Officer, Trade Policy and Facilitation Section of the Trade, Investment and Innovation Division of the United Nations ESCAP. His work revolves around issues of trade and sustainable development, non-tariff measures, illicit financial flows and trade misinvoicing in the region. His most recent work focused on trade and climate change and the development of an online platform to support trade negotiators in data analysis. Prior to joining the United Nations, he ran a consultancy which specialized in non-market valuation, choice modelling and geo-spatial online surveys. He also taught various undergraduate and graduate economics and econometrics courses in China (Shanghai International Studies University) and New Zealand (University of Waikato and Waikato Institute of Technology). He holds Masters in International Business and Mandarin, Masters in Economics, and a PhD in Economics from the University of Waikato, New Zealand.

Rupa Chanda is the Director of Trade, Investment and Innovation. Prior to that, she was a Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) where she taught Macroeconomics and International Trade and received several teaching awards. She also served as Dean, Programmes at IIMB. Earlier, she worked as an Economist at the IMF and briefly served as Head, UNESCAP Subregional Office for South and South-West Asia in New Delhi. Prof. Chanda received her PhD in Economics from Columbia University and her Bachelor’s from Harvard University.

Her research interests include the WTO, trade in services, regional integration and migration. She has undertaken research and professional assignments for international an Indian organization and has published extensively in the form of books, journal articles, book chapters, and reports. She is active professionally as a research guide, reviewer, and member of several expert committees. She was member of the WHO’s Review Committee on the functioning of the International Health Regulations (2015-16) and the WHO’s Expert Advisory Group, International Recruitment of Health Personnel (2019-20).

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.

Pierre Sauvé is a Senior Trade Specialist within the World Bank Group's Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment Global Practice, where he manages interactions with Geneva-based trade institutions and the donor community and represents the Bank in key trade-governance related committees at the OECD, in Paris. He served most recently as the WTI's Director of External Programs and Academic Partnerships. He has held visiting professor appointments at the University of Barcelona, the College of Europe, the Institut d’Etudes Politiques’ (Sciences-Po Paris) and the London School of Economics and Political Science.

He served as a senior economist in the OECD Trade Directorate from 1993–2002, a period during which he was a faculty member of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and was appointed non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. Prior to joining the OECD, he served as services negotiator within the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade's Office of North American Free Trade Negotiations. He was previously a staff member of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in Geneva, Switzerland as well as the Bank for International Settlements, in Basel, Switzerland.

Mr Sauvé was educated in economics and international relations at the Université du Québec à Montreal and Carleton University in Canada, as well as at Cambridge and Oxford universities in the United Kingdom. He has advised the governments of a number of OECD and developing countries and served as a consultant to leading regional and multilateral agencies involved in trade, finance and development. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of International Economic Law, the Journal of World Trade and the Latin American Journal of International Trade. He currently serves on the Advisory Board of the WTO Academic Chairs program and is an adviser to the Asian Research Network on Trade.