Hub and Spokes

A number of experts have been funded by the Commonwealth Secretariat as part of a project to assist African, Caribbean and Pacific countries by helping them integrate more easily into the world’s trade system. The project also helps trade negotiators in these regions articulate their national or regional positions in various international forums like the World Trade Organization.

This project, often referred to as ‘Hub and Spokes’, is a joint initiative between the Secretariat, the Organization Internationale de la Francophonie and the European Commission, along with support from the ACP Secretariat.

For example, we have placed experts in the Caribbean who have been working with government departments as well as the CARICOM Secretariat in the run-up to this new Economic Partnership Agreement with Europe, which will usher in a new era of trade relations. The agreement will bring to an end the preferential one-way duty free access into the EU currently enjoyed by Caribbean countries. It will also commit CARIFORUM states to open their markets to European goods and services.

http://www.thecommonwealth.org/hubandspokes