Portal launch
The EaP Trade Helpdesk platform was delivered at the 6th Eastern Partnership Summit, held in Brussels on the 15th December 2021. This unique regional web platform centralises trade intelligence on market opportunities and requirements for EaP countries.
In late 2021, the platform was tested with business support organizations and government institutions in the region. It has received a very positive response as there is widespread recognition of its contribution to improving the transparency of trade information.
Over 80 representatives of government institutions and business support organizations in the countries of the Eastern Partnership took part in the testing phase. The ITC team has collected their feedback and recommendations regarding the improvement of the information currently available and the additional data that could be added to the portal.
The platform will be launched in each of the participating countries in 2022.
The portal has been identified as:
- Informative
- Easy to navigate
- User-friendly
- Relevant
Most useful elements named:
- Export potential estimations
- Trade information and rules of origin
- Trade flows
- Regulatory changes
Business surveys on non-tariff measures (ntms)
The NTM business surveys will document the experiences of exporters of goods and services in dealing with NTMs in order to gain a holistic understanding of existing trader barriers in the region. The technical and financial evaluation of the bidding companies has been concluded, and the surveys are set to be launched in spring 2022.
Capacity building
In conjunction with the national portal launches, the ITC team will deliver a training programme on “Market Analysis using EaP Trade Helpdesk” in each country. This programme will feature applied market analysis for key products and target markets using the new platform. The training will target representatives from business support organisations, government institutions and other relevant stakeholders. The development of the interactive and applied learning methods for these hands-on workshops is underway and will be delivered in the coming months in each country.
Trade in services data collection
In terms of trade in services data management, the innovative training developed for the project aims to improve the availability of such data in the EaP countries. ITC's collaboration with its Georgian partners in this area continued with a training programme in mid-February. Following discussion of a national assessment report, travel has been selected as the focus sector in Ukraine, with a training programme currently being developed. Technical assessments on trade in services data management are upcoming for Armenia and Azerbaijan, and will be finalized in the coming months.
Step-by-step guides to trade procedures
In the first half of 2022, the ITC team will start work on creating step-by-step guides covering the required administrative procedures required for the export of selected products from the EaP countries to the EU market and between EaP countries. In collaboration with each country, ITC experts will make a selection of the products to be covered in each national guide. The product selection for Georgia has been confirmed, and currently we are finalizing the selection with stakeholders in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Moldova. The collected information will also be made available through the EaP Trade Helpdesk portal.
