MSG Green Trade Project End of the Year Meeting

On December 15, 2022, the MSG green Trade Project team met online to review the progress made during the current year and to look forward to the year to come. During the meeting, the team made a common presentation (see PowerPoint attached to the news) which allowed to highlight the work done. 

The year 2022 saw the holding of national workshops in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. These workshops launched the subsequent activity of collecting non-tariff measures (NTM) data in all Melanesian Spearhead Group countries (MSG), which comprise the three countries mentioned above as well as Fiji. Ms. Seul Lee, Associate Economic Officer at UNCTAD, briefed participants on the NTM data coding, shared that it was almost complete and would be available on the TRAINS online platform in the first quarter of 2023. Participants were also informed that the second activity of the MSG Green Trade Project, the voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) assessment, was well underway. Field missions have been successfully completed in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, thanks to the local team and the valuable support of the national authorities. The writing of the reports is now in progress with a finalization planned for early 2023. More recently, the redaction of export guides has also started and is planned to be completed in the first months of 2023. 

In view of the current good progress, it has been communicated that it will be possible to organize the second national workshops in the 4 MSG member countries as planned, by the end of the first quarter of 2023. These workshops will be an opportunity to share the results of the different activities and in particular to decide on common ways to use their findings to contribute to the sustainable development of the target countries. In addition, they will also pave the way for the regional component of this project, with the creation of an action plan. 

At the end of the exchanges, the MSG Green Trade Project team wished everyone a happy holiday and especially thanked the national governments officials for their support and commitment, without which the success of this project would not be possible.