The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) are organizing the seventeenth session of the SPECA Working Group on Trade on 31 August 2022, back-to-back with the tenth session of the Asia-Pacific Trade Facilitation Forum: Next Generation Trade Facilitation for Sustainable Development (29-30 August 2022). The Working Group supports cross-border and regional cooperation for the implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda in Central Asia, in sustainable trade (notably SDG targets 17.10 and 17.11).
The session will focus on the deliverables of the SPECA Working Group on Trade:
- discuss collaboration among the SPECA countries in facing the COVID-19 crisis and emerging issues related to the Russian-Ukrainian war,
- progress in the implementation of the SPECA Trade Facilitation Strategy and related roadmap,
- further development and implementation of the Principles for Sustainable Trade in the subregion,
- studies and recommendations on non-tariff barriers to trade in the subregion in the age of the pandemic, and
- standards for the digitalization of data and document flows in multimodal transport and trade.
The event will review national and regional plans and strategies of the SPECA countries for sustainable trade development and facilitation and strengthen cooperation among trade diplomats of the SPECA countries. Participants in the session and SPECA participating countries are requested to contribute their good practices and identify priority actions the SPECA Working Group on Trade could work on in the coming 2-3 years.
Access to the UN/ESCAP SPECA Working Group on Trade page.
Target audience: trade policymakers from the SPECA countries.
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- Programme English