This training material aims to strengthen officials' and experts' understanding of the trade barriers that affect trade in goods and the economic determinants of such trade; proposals made in different forums to reform border policies affecting trade in goods and the analysis of those proposals, with a particular focus on the strategic questions raised by regional trade agreements; and particular challenges facing trade policy makers in the Greater Mekong Subregion.

Services account for a significant share of the subregion’s GDP, ranging from 25.7% in the Lao People's Democratic Republic to 39.1% in Cambodia and 46.0% in Thailand