The Pacific ACP Trade Officials Meeting (PACPTOM), is currently on-going in Suva Fiji.

The meeting chaired by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat is a significant way- forward in strengthening trade initiatives and outlining the key priorities for the Pacific region in 2025.

Senior trade officials from Pacific nations, representatives from the Council of Regional Organisations in the Pacific (CROP), development partners, and technical support organizations gather to actively shape the region’s trade agenda.

As a key development partner in the Pacific, senior representatives from the European Union (EU), UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the other development partners in the Pacific attended a session of the meeting.

The representatives highlighted major interventions in customs and trade thus far under the EU-funded projects in the region and key achievements.

The UN Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) ASYCUDA Pacific Programme’s Regional Coordinator, Ms. Dhanushki Sahabandu, presented the significant accomplishments of the EU-funded Improving Pacific Islands Customs and Trade (IMPACT) Project.

Notably, the project has led to the digitalization of customs processes in three Micronesian countries: the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Republic of Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia, thus now covering all 15 countries in the Pacific, publication of Non-Tariff Measures, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) related data for seven countries in the region, and the development of Single Window Blueprints for Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga and the Republic of Palau.

Ms. Sahabandu also shared findings from a recently completed gap analysis on 15 Pacific ACP countries. The report assessed their compliance with international trade standards, including the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (WTO TFA) and the EU-Pacific (Interim) Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).

The PACPTOM highlighted the ongoing collaboration and progress in enhancing trade within the Pacific region, laying a solid foundation for future initiatives aimed at boosting economic growth and regional integration.