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which they can respond to the opportunities of globalisation or areexposed to the risks. Of course, trade is not an end in itself but ameans of reducing poverty, promoting growth and enabling moreparticipation by women in economic activity. The imperative thereforeis to ensure that trade contributes to human development ina meaningful way, which is why world leaders re-affirmed the importanceof fully integrating African countries into the internationaltrading system, including through targeted trade capacity buildingprogrammes in the 2005 World Summit Outcome.Since its establishment, ATPC has made substantial and valuable contributionsto support African countries in the area of trade but thereis still a lot to be done. African countries continue to face numerouschallenges in this area. Apart from the ongoing need for greater integrationof trade into national development strategies, it remains importantto continuously upgrade the capacity of African countries tonegotiate trade agreements. These agreements are becoming moredifficult to manage because they are increasing in number and covera wider range of issues. For instance, in addition to the numerousissues in the negotiations at the World Trade Organization, most Africancountries have to service an increasing number of regional andbilateral trade agreements, including Economic Partnership Agreementswith the European Union. At the same time, in addition to increasinglycomplex negotiations in merchandise trade, negotiationsnow often encompass issues such as trade in services, intellectualproperty issues, trade facilitation, and trade and the environment.This Roundtable therefore provides an opportunity to exchangeviews on these multifarious challenges, including the technical assistanceneeds of African countries in the area of trade. It is also agood occasion to share information about the activities of the ATPCand deliberate on ways and means of strengthening it to meet futurechallenges. Given the increasing demands for trade policy supportand capacity building in our Member States, we hope to use this occasionto broaden the support base of the Centre so that we candeepen and expand its activities and enable it to continue to deliverits services in a rapid and flexible manner.148 Part Three