Publication Categories
Aid-for-Trade in the Pacific Islands
The study addresses the trade capacity-building needs of the Forum Island Countries (FICs) and Timor Leste with a view to mobilising Aid-for-Trade (AfT) resources supporting their trade policy and regulations, trade development, trade-related infrastructure, productive capacity building, and trade-related adjustments. The AfT project proposals are fully integrated into each country’s trade development strategy and are intended to help the vulnerable sectors that previously benefited from protection but are increasingly subject to financial stress as countries in the region liberalise their trade regime. Understanding these transmission channels and preparing the current set of AfT project proposals within each country’s trade development strategy has been central to the project design process. To that end, Chapter II of this report proposes a Pacific AfT Strategy based on the Pacific Plan Vision, as well as the national and regional implementation activity and costing matrix defining the current funding gap; Chapter III then sets out the national strategic goals and, to the extent possible, maps out the AfT project proposals within those strategic objectives for each of the FICs and Timor Leste; Chapter IV presents a set of regional AfT project proposals, as well as a consolidation of national level projects having a common theme; Chapter V covers implementation arrangements in terms of the identified needs and development partner strategies and commitments, and a proposed Trade Development Facility (TDF); and Chapter VI addresses the assumptions, risks and sustainability of the projects.