Press releases

Nepali business support organizations to train members on trade facilitation

25 novembre 2021
ITC News
  • Master trainers will use International Trade Centre tools to train private sector on the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement
  • Guidance and training will help small businesses in international trade

Nepal’s trade support institutions can now autonomously train their members on the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) through the International Trade Centre’s Trade and Investment Programme, funded by the European Union.

Fifteen private-sector representatives participated in the training-of-trainers as part of the Programme’s goal to enhance the capacity of the private sector to understand the benefits of the TFA and cohesively advocate its implementation.

The newly trained Master Trainers will be able to raise awareness on the provisions and benefits of the Agreement measures among the business community in Nepal and strengthen the capacity of businesses to effectively advocate and participate in policy dialogues on business-friendly trade facilitation reforms.

Background

Entered into force in February 2017, the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement promises greater trade efficiency by targeting administrative barriers to trade: unnecessary border inspections, excessive document and data requirements, manual processes, lack of coordination among border authorities as well as complex and inefficient rules and procedures.

Especially for small businesses, operationalizing the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement is a path to internationalization, allowing them to access international value chains at lower costs and greater speeds.

The four-day-long training of trainers follows a virtual training for members of the private sector, organized by the Trade and Investment Programme in July.

Quotes

“We hope that this training will work towards making the Trade Facilitation Agreement more accessible and relevant in the Nepali context. It is also commendable that the trainers will be able to work beyond the tenure of the project as they now possess the knowledge to share with the business community in Nepal.”
Gobinda Bahadur Karkee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies

“We are glad to be back in Nepal conducting in-person trainings. The participants were very receptive and showed great enthusiasm in the topic. We hope to train more professionals on the Trade Facilitation Agreement to help Nepal reaping the benefits of this important multilateral agreement.”
Eleonora Salluzzi, trainer on the Trade Facilitation Agreement, International Trade Centre

About the project

The EU-Nepal Trade and Investment Programme, funded by the European Union (EU), aims to strengthen Nepal’s path towards more inclusive economic growth and greater integration into regional and global value chains.

As part of the project’s dedicated component on building private-sector capacity for trade-related public-private dialogue and reforms, these trainings build on the results of a diagnostic assessment of the advocacy capacity of trade support institutions in Nepal, where the need to receive capacity-building training on advocacy was expressed in unison.