PRESS RELEASE 
 
PRESS/428 
14 December 2005 
 
(05-5896) 
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE 
Recipients and donors revi ew cooperation programme 
Partner countries of JITAP, the Joint Integrated Technical Assistance Programme, implemented 
jointly by the International Trade Centre (ITC),  the United Nations Conference on Trade and 
Development (UNCTAD) and the World Trade Organiza tion (WTO), met today on the fringes of the 
6th WTO Ministerial Conference to review the programme, its impact and future needs, and share 
experiences. 
 Trade Ministers and representatives of the 16 African countries
1 benefiting from the programme, 
as well as Trade Ministers and representatives from the donor countries, and Senior 
Representatives of the three JITAP implementing ag encies participated in the event, “JITAP : An 
effective Answer to Trade-Related Capacity Buildi ng on the Multilateral Trading System”.  Also 
present were a number of invited Ministers from other African countries, as well as representatives 
of Regional Economic organizations.  
JITAP aims to build capacities at the national level to assist partner countries in using trade as an 
engine of sustained growth and human development, to enable these countries to integrate effectively and beneficially into the Multilateral Trading System. JITAP is contributing to the setting 
up of a trade policy process that helps each country identify its trade interests in the framework of 
its overall development and poverty reduction strate gy and, based on this identification, develop a 
specific trade strategy for policy formulation, negotiations, and implementation. 
 
A number of African Trade Ministers spoke of how JITAP has brought together all relevant stakeholders through the creation of Inter Institutional Committees (IICs), and how it has helped 
the IICs to disseminate trade related information to the general public and to key personnel 
through the Reference Centres and National Enqu iry Points set up or strengthened under the 
programme. The ministers underlined the human an d institutional capacities built under the 
programme, and how it has helped their countries in sectoral export strategy formulation and 
created synergies between all Trade Related Technical Assistance (TRTA) activities in their countries. 
 
                                              
 
1 Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, 
Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal, Tunisia, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia. PRESS/428 
Page 2 of 2 
 
 The three implementing agencies reiterated their commitment to help African countries in building 
human, institutional and entrepreneurial capacities, and urged the donor community to further 
grant its support to JITAP and other trade-related technical cooperation programmes.  
JITAP is the first TRTA programme of its kind in which the three major multilateral trade agencies 
have joined forces and coordinated their responses towards building trade-related human, entrepreneurial and institutional capacities in Africa, in order to enable the African countries to 
integrate effectively and beneficially into the Multilateral Trading System (MTS).  
  
In all 16 countries benefiting from the programme, this has resulted in a clearer vision of the 
available export opportunities created as a consequence of the improved market access conditions. Public and private sectors jointly participate in the formulation of export strategies, covering 
various products such as cassava, hides and skins,  textiles, fish products , fruits and vegetables. 
The programme has also helped the benefiting countries to strengthen their national committees dealing with trade negotiations, by enlightening and involving more actively the private sector and 
civil society in the preparation of international trade negotiations. The personnel trained by JITAP 
on international trade negotiations and issues - more than 360 so far have been trained under the current phase of JITAP - are more active in the preparation of technical studies and negotiation 
strategies at the WTO and at regional level, including the negotiations engaged under AGOA, ACP-
EU EPA negotiations, etc. The programme has created or strengthened more than fifty specialized trade information points with access to international trade sources, including the WTO, UNCTAD 
and ITC. Another fifty of such information points are to be set up before the end of 2006.  These 
information points contribute to informing exporters and traders from partner countries on the regulatory requirements in export ma rkets for SPS, TBT, TRIPS and GATS. 
 
The JITAP programme is now in its second phase. The first was concluded in December 2002. A new phase was launched in February 2003 for a period  of four years.  This phase incorporates the 
original eight countries
2 in a consolidation stage, and the additional eight countries in a foundation 
stage.  The Eight original countries will exit the programme as at 31 December 2005.    
The donors to the JITAP programme are: Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, 
Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.  
 
END 
 
 
                                              
 
2 Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghan a, Kenya, Tanzania, Tunisia, and Uganda.