East African Community (EAC) regional trade facilitation events

In line with the East African Community (EAC) project on Capacity Building for EAC Trade Portals Connectivity and Trade Facilitation Support, funded by the African Development Bank and the Multilateral Cooperation Centre for Development Finance (MCDF), UNCTAD and ITC, in collaboration with the EAC Secretariat, will co-organize two key regional events in October 2025: 

• Technical Peer Learning Workshop on Trade Portals (13-15 October 2025)
• Meeting of the EAC Sub-Committee on Trade Facilitation (16-17 October 2025) 

The deliverables of the workshops are as follows: 

• Improved knowledge sharing on best practices for TIP management, procedural mapping, and reform implementation.
• Concrete recommendations to align regional trade facilitation priorities with evolving national and cross-border needs.
• Innovative proposals for enhancing TIP functionalities and exploring new digital solutions at both national and regional levels.
• Advance coherence in implementing the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), with focus on National Trade Facilitation Committees, simplification measures, Category C support, and integrated risk management.
• Identification of synergies between ongoing trade facilitation initiatives and regional ICT-driven efforts, including the development of an Afro-Asian data window to improve intra- and extra-regional market connectivity.
• Capacity strengthening of the EAC trade facilitation ecosystem, enabling Partner States to harmonize and coordinate policies more effectively.
• Increased readiness to attract foreign investment, particularly from the ASEAN+ market, by creating a more transparent, predictable, and efficient trade environment.