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ACP Countries Need Full Support for Global Trade Development

6 September 2004

Members of the African Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) need assistance in capacity-building and technical assistance in their negotiations with the World Trade Organisation and the European Union.

Participants at the Hub and Spokes meeting.

Issues such as agriculture, non-agricultural market excess, special and differential treatment must be addressed. This includes trade in services, intellectual property rights and electronic commerce, which provide challenges for countries with limited trade negotiating capacity. The ACP countries would benefit from improved capacity in trade policy formulation and implementation.

Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Florence Mugasha drove home this message at a briefing session for trade policy analysts under the Trade Policy Formulation, Negotiation and Implementation Project held at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, UK, on 6 September 2004. Known as the 'Hub and Spokes' project, it is a joint effort of the Commonwealth Secretariat and l'Agence Intergouvernementale de la Francophonie (AIF) with funding from the European Commission (EC).  Under this programme, which costs over 20 million euros, a total of 48 trade analysts will serve as 'spokes', reporting to nine regional trade advisers, who act as 'hubs'. They, in turn will be supported by the Commonwealth Secretariat and AIF. The analysts will assist host countries with trade policy capacity-building over the next two years.

Mrs Mugasha urged the eight trade policy analysts from the Commonwealth and the European Union who attended the briefing today to identify trade related constraints, capacity gaps and development goals. The analysts will be posted in October to government ministries in the Fiji Islands, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Tonga, United Republic of Tanzania and Vanuatu. One of the analysts will be attached to the Pacific Forum Secretariat in the Fiji Islands.

"Many developed as well as developing countries see it as being in their mutual interest for developing countries to be assisted in overcoming trade-related capacity gaps, so that all countries can negotiate effectively, and provide some credibility to the outcomes of the negotiations," said the Deputy Secretary-General.