Presentation by Lingston Cumberbatch Director of the TradeCom PMU ACP Secretariat Open Day

1. Presentation by Lingston Cumberbatch Director of the TradeCom PMU ACP Secretariat Open Day 11th October 2011

2. The Mandate of the TradeCom Facility is to: • Reinforce analytical and research capacities for trade policy formulation of ACP countries and regions; • Provide support in trade negotiations; • Provide institutional support to create the enabling regulatory environment in the ACP

3. Facility Extension The Facility was due to come to an end in December 2010 but following evaluation it was extended for an additional bridging period of 18 months. The additional mandate of which is to: Provide support for the development of project for long-term institutional capacity building of RECs and relevant public or private institutions in trade related areas and their preparation for support through the Regional Indicative Programmes (RIPs).

4. Implementing the Mandate What has done so far? • All the RECs have been informed of TradeCom’s new mandate and invited to submit project proposals. • A two week Training Programme has been organised for all the ACP RECs from the 4th – 12th of July, in Brussels, on Project Preparation (linked to Aid for Trade, RIP and NIP implementation and EPA implementation). Follow-up activities are being envisaged on a regional basis. • Field mission have been conducted in certain regions – Pacific and Central Africa - to assess the needs on the ground. • Projects in line with this new mandate have been launched for certain regions already in the Pacific, and Central Africa.

5. RECs Training July 2011, Brussels

6. Continuing Support TradeCom has continued its support to meet requests from ACP countries and RECs on: • Trade Policy Formulation – analytical work, and trade strategies • Trade Negotiations – technical assistance, and institutional support in the EPA negotiations • Implementation of Trade Agreements – enabling the trading environment

7. As to today, the PMU has implemented some 225 project in various subject areas of its mandate. The projects have ranged from training to specialised technical assistance support in trade and trade-related areas in ACP countries and regions. • Projects have also been implemented related to competition policy, intellectual properly rights and trade development support, overall guided to building the capacity of ACP countries to export their goods and services.

8. Recent focuses Recently TradeCom has been active in specific areas of trade development such as Geographical Indication for products of ACP origin. In addition to the product-marketing and value enhancing benefits GIs can be used to trigger a dynamic of local development based on a local-product approach. It can have a valuable socio-economic impact.

9. Identification of GI products from the ACP

10. Recent and upcoming work • 4 workshops were organised in the ACP regions in preparation for an all-ACP Conference on GIs. The conference was held in Brussels from the 3rd – 5th of November 2010. • Another work on GIs is being organised for the African Union Commission in Kampala for November 2011. • TradeCom is also undertaking projects related to Fair Trade, concerning products such as cotton fish and rice, for example.

11. The closure of TradeCom • All projects will have to be completed by March 2012. The deadline will enforce time constraints and projects are being managed with this factor in mind. • There is a need for continued support to the ACP traditional trade and trade related areas as well as items getting prominence on the agenda such as trade and environment, food security, exchange rate polities and value chain managements.

12. The Management Unit TradeCom Facility for the ACP Countries Avenue des Gaulois 20 B-1040 Brussels Belgium Tel: +32 2 743 0020 Fax: +32 2 743 0029 www.tradecom-acpeu.org