A €380,000 EU grant has been signed with United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) after ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly committees met in the European Parliament premises today. The funded action aims at improving coordination and implementation of trade facilitation reforms in Central Africa countries.

The EU grant will support the countries of the region in putting in place the agreement. It will also boost capacities of their respective National Committees on Trade Facilitation to comply with other relevant national, regional and international requirements and share lessons learned throughout the region.  

The project will be run in cooperation with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) over a period of three years, starting in January 2017.

DG Trade (Directorate F. WTO, Legal Affairs and Trade in Goods) Director Denis Redonnet, and UNCTAD Deputy Secretary General Joakim Reiter have officially announced the allocation of the grant while at the European Parliament, at the end of the session of the three EU-ACP Joint Parliamentary Assembly committees and in presence of the Vice-Chair of the Economic, Finance and Trade Committee of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, Mrs Joyce Laboso for the ACP side and M. Louis-Joseph Manscour on behalf of Laura Ferrara for the EU.

The European Parliament is proud to host this event that illustrates the EU and UNCTAD close cooperation.

Background information

Under the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, the WTO Members are required to set up and/or maintain a national committee on Trade Facilitation (to facilitate in import, export and transit of goods) upon the entry into force of this agreement.

A joint delegation of Members of the Committees on International Trade (INTA) and on Development (DEVE) represented the Parliament at the fourteenth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD14) in Nairobi from 19 to 22 July 2016. Members of the delegation agreed on the need to enhance partnership with the UNCTAD Secretariat.