The ACP TradeCom II Programme

he ACP TradeCom II Programme is a €3.5 million programme funded by the European Union. The ACP TradeCom II Programme is supporting the agenda of the OECS regional integration by contributing to the full implementation of the OECS Economic Union through building capacity for public and private operators in the area of trade.

The overall objective of the TradeCom II Programme is to contribute to sustainable economic development and poverty reduction in countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, through closer regional integration and increased participation in the global economy. 

The ACP TradeCom II Programme is implemented by the OECS Commission through the OECS Trade Unit, in partnership with the International Trade Centre. The project was launched in June 2019 and should be completed by June 2022. 

Beneficiary Countries:

The ACP TradeCom II Programme mainly aims to build trade capacity in the protocol OECS Member States namely Antigua and Barbuda, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Goals

The objectives of the ACP TradeCom II Programme are as follows: 

• producing a cadre of trained and certified trade policy professionals and practitioners to operationalize the exclusive competence of the OECS Commission mandated by the Revised Treaty of Basseterre;
• establishing a well-defined mechanism to facilitate the inclusion of the private sector in trade policy dialogue and decision making;
• creating a single modernised and strengthened OECS trade policy for all OECS Protocol Member States
• supporting trade policy analysis, negotiations and greater accessibility to opportunities and synergies for stakeholders of the private sector through the creation of a harmonized Trade Information and Facilitation Platform (TIFP).

Activities

The development and implementation of the OECS Trade Map and OECS Market Access Map which are Trade Market Intelligence implemented under the ACP TradeCom II Programme. The TMI is provided by the International Trade Centre through its partnership with the United Kingdom Trade Partnerships Programme (UKTP).

This tool is set to improve the overall accessibility and transparency in trade intelligence within the OECS. The Trade and Market Intelligence (TMI) tool enables trade professionals from the public and private sectors to benefit from multiple services including:

• undertaking queries and analysing data on intra-OECS and external trade flows, 
• creating customized reports,
• checking the export performance of countries,
• identifying trends and promising markets,
• evaluating competitors, and
• generating business directories.  

Access more resources on Trade in the Eastern Caribbean via the OECS Library.