The Regional Trade Facilitation Programme (RTFP) is rising to the challenge of improving trade performance within the southern Africa region – for the especial benefit of the poor.
Its activities currently focus on:
- Streamlining customs and border procedures: Making it quicker and easier to do business across national borders and within regional groupings;
- Contributing to the successful negotiation of pro-poor trade agreements: Providing back-up technical support to the LDC Group in the WTO Forum as well as to the two regional groups negotiating Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Commission;
- Assisting COMESA, SADC and SACU to improve their effectiveness: Undertaking work to support specific regional programmes as well as acting as the Secretariat for the joint Task Force of COMESA-EAC-SADC;
- Increasing exports of commodities grown or harvested by local communities: Technical services to increase production, harvesting, market and export of such products as tea, coffee, nuts and natural products (Devil's Claw, Baobab, Marula etc);
- Improving trade policy capacity: Financing training and commissioning research.
