TradeSift: facilitating trade-policy analysis

Within the research theme of Citizenship and Democratisation, researchers at Sussex are developing new tools to overcome the complexities of international trade-policy analysis. TradeSift is a dynamic new software tool that is providing an alternative to pre-existing, complex and expensive economic models to make trade-policy analysis more globally accessible.

The development of a dynamic new software tool for more accessible international trade-policy analysis

Traditionally, analysis of changes in trade and trade policy and the identification of trade opportunities have involved the use of highly trained personnel and sophisticated and expensive models, which can often be time consuming for individuals and organisations.

To address these issues, a team of highly experienced trade-policy analysts based at the University of Sussex (Michael Gasiorek, Peter Holmes and Jim Rollo) and a skilled computer programmer (Leszek Gasiorek) developed TradeSift.

TradeSift is novel software designed to provide robust and consistent analysis of trade and trade-policy choices without the need for complex, expensive models or highly qualified economists or consultancies.

TradeSift was conceived following a request from the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) to develop means whereby international trade policy could be analysed by their desk officers without recourse to complicated tools and expensive resources.

The intention was to empower those policy analysts with core economic knowledge to evaluate trade policy in a cost-effective and time-efficient manner, with a particular focus on aiding developing countries that lack extensive financial and human resources.

The solution to the problem was a conceptual framework based on flexible diagnostic trade indicators, checklists of key areas of analysis to be covered, and ‘rules of thumb’ to allow fast and consistent assessment of costs and benefits.

The TradeSift software makes the analysis process much faster, providing an easy-to-use interface that allows the analysis of freely available international trade data without the need for complicated modelling.

The software gives the user the means to analyse trade policy before and after implementation, and to generate negotiating priorities and strategy based on actual trade and economic performance.

It enables the user to calculate the diagnostic trade indicators flexibly and quickly, and, from this, analysts can quickly and accurately generate graphs, tables and reports using TradeSift’s integrated report writer.

Following the initial development phase, a limited company – InterAnalysis Ltd – was set up to take the project forward.

Subsequent support from the Enterprise Panel, and work from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), enabled development to continue and the software to be rolled out.

A contract from DFID allowed the delivery of a pilot training programme of one-, three- and five-day training courses, over the period of a year, to over 100 users across the developing world.

The courses are designed to train target users in key conceptual issues, data sources and classification schemes, and in the use and application of the software to these issues.

The purpose of this pilot was to trial the effectiveness of courses of different duration in training different users, from experienced analysts to those with little experience in trade policy, and to generate feedback on the perceived usefulness of TradeSift.

Thus far, courses have been run at Sussex, and in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Vietnam, and Switzerland, with excellent uptake of places and extremely encouraging responses from participants.

In addition, TradeSift has been demonstrated to the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and other international organisations, academics and NGOs, with a similarly positive response.

The next stage is to complete final testing of the software prior to release for sale, and to run further courses following requests from a number of developing countries.

The cost effectiveness and ease of use of TradeSift makes it a valuable resource to governments, NGOs and the private sector alike, with additional scope for teaching in universities.

TradeSift is currently being used by the UK DFID/BIS Trade Policy Unit as well as by trade ministries in a number of developing countries.

Finally, there are additional benefits to Sussex, with the project providing full-time jobs for two recent graduates and work experience for others, and the potential to attract students and consultancy contracts to the University.