EPA TAPSS; Creating an enabling business environment for private sector growth

1.0             Background

The Economic Partnership Agreement Related Trade and Private Sector Support (EPA TAPSS) Program is a four year, European Union (EU) - funded program under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives (MTIC).  The Financing Agreement for EPA TAPSS was signed by the Government of Uganda and the European Union on 14th July 2009. The EPA TAPSS Programme succeeds other EU funded programs in the Trade sector, notably the Uganda Programme for Trade Opportunities and Policy (UPTOP) 2003-2007 and the Technical Support for Economic Partnership Agreement Finalisation (TSEPAF) 2008-2009.   

The Programme builds on achievements made in the sector over the past few years, especially the formulation of The National Trade Policy and the securing of duty free and quota free market access for all products to the other four Partner States of the East African Community (EAC) and the twenty seven (27) Member States of the European Union through the EAC Customs Union and the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) respectively.  The design of the EPA TAPSS program was spearheaded by the Ministry and the process was informed by an identification study that was conducted in 2007/2008.

 2.0             Program Objectives

The Program aims at enhancing the capacity of MTIC to fulfil its mandate in respect to development of trade, and enabling the country to develop sufficient capacity to exploit the trade opportunities available under the EPA and the different regional trade agreements.  Within that general objective, two specific objectives have been identified as:

1. To bolster the capacity of MTIC to spearhead the development of the country’s trade sector, and the creation of an enabling business environment for private sector development;
2. To increase the ability of Uganda’s products to conform to international quality standards and to strengthen the enforcement of such standards

To ensure that the above objectives are met, the Program has five result areas.  The result areas are;

• Institutional strengthening of MTIC and strengthening linkages between production and trade/domestic trade development
• Regulatory and institutional reforms to streamline the trading process
• Effective management of the trade negotiations process 
• Trade Facilitation; producing trade-related information and making it accessible to users, and
• Improvement of quality standards and compliance with Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary requirements

 3.0     Beneficiaries of the Program

• The Public Sector, notably the Department of External Trade and Department of Internal Trade in the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives(MTIC),
• Policy implementation agencies of the Ministry such as the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) and Uganda Export Promotion Board (UEPB),

• Other public sector agencies whose mandates hinge on/impact on the objectives of the Project,

• Partnering Local Government authorities,
• The Private Sector,

• The Civil Society,
• The Academia and

• The Media

Contact:

The EPA TAPSS Programme,

5th Floor, Farmers House, Parliament Avenue,

P.O Box 29901

Kampala, Uganda.

Tel:     0414232864

Fax:     0414232820

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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