Who Commercial Diplomats are
The most obvious practitioners of Commercial Diplomacy are trade officials who are charged with negotiating international trade and investment agreements and resolving policy conflicts that impact on international commerce. Trade officials are only the most visible Commercial Diplomats and are usually outnumbered by personnel with trade-related responsibilities in many other government departments and ministries.
Examples include:
- Officials from departments or ministries responsible for foreign affairs, finance, agriculture, industry, labor, health, the environment, the regulation of banks, telecommunications, air transportation, or the licensing of professionals.
- International Trade, Investment or Commercial Arbitrators
- Trade Representatives, Commercial Attaches or Trade Advisers
- Managers in the international departments of industry associations, corporations, unions, and non-governmental organizations who have a stake in the outcome of trade policy decisions and therefore play a role in the domestic and global political advocacy and coalition-building process that usually precedes negotiations on international
- Corporate managers posted in foreign countries where they must interact extensively with the host government on a broad range of regulatory issues.
- Professionals in international organizations that deal with global trade, investment, and trade-related regulatory issues.
ACCD's Passion for Knowledge and Competency Few graduates of traditional universities or graduate schools emerge with a rudimentary knowledge of all of commercial diplomacy fields. More importantly they usually lack an ability to integrate the various fields into a coherent analysis and an integrated strategy. In most cases they also do not know how to apply their academic knowledge to real world situations.
In most institutions, a different department teaches each of commercial diplomacy related subjects. At ACCD, the global professional body for commercial diplomats, the competent commercial diplomat must be part commercial expert, part economist, part public policy analyst, part commercial arbitrator, part anti-corruption practitioner, part politician, part lawyer, part negotiator, and part public relations and media expert.
Commercial Diplomacy Practitioners