WTO launches 3rd phase of Enhanced Integrated Framework

EIF is a mechanism aimed at leveraging and coordinating support for trade and investment priorities in least-developed countries (LDCs).

WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala called for stronger partnerships to achieve the objectives of the Enhanced Integrated Framework’s (EIF) third phase, launched yesterday in Yaounde.
It aims to coordinate support for trade and investment priorities in LDCs.
The latest six-year phase has also secured fresh contribution pledges from Germany, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and the UK.

The new phase was launched at a side event to the 14th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC14) in Yaounde, Cameroon, co-organised by Cambodia, the United Arab Emirates and the EIF executive secretariat.

The third phase of the EIF introduces a shift from stand-alone projects to multi-year country programming. It is designed to help LDCs better integrate into the global trading system while addressing structural vulnerabilities and seizing new opportunities in areas such as digital trade, services, green value chains and regional integration.

The latest six-year phase also received new contribution pledges from Germany ($1.964 million), Liechtenstein (~$63,139), Norway ($4.15 million), Switzerland ($3.16 million) and the United Kingdom ($6.67 million).

“This third phase of the EIF comes at a defining moment for the LDCs and recently graduated countries. Familiar structural vulnerabilities are being compounded by a disrupted global trading system, power politics, debt pressures, climate change, and global economic uncertainty. At the same time, the current global context offers some important opportunities for LDCs to use trade to drive growth, development, and job creation,” Okonjo-Iweala said in a release issued by the WTO.

The DG also emphasised the need to scale up support and partnerships to match the ambition of the new phase.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)