Samoa signs Trade project Memorandum of Understanding with the Commonwealth

04 September 2015
News

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with respect to continuing the Commonwealth’s Hub and Spokes II programme in Samoa.

The Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Samoa, Hon Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Neioti Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi and the Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with respect to continuing the Commonwealth’s Hub and Spokes II programme in Samoa.

The MoU was signed following a meeting between the Hon Prime Minister and the Secretary-General, who is on an official visit to Samoa.

Hub and Spokes is a joint initiative with the Secretariat of the ACP Group, the European Union, the Commonwealth and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) to assist participating countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific to enhance trade capacity. Trade experts are deployed within countries and at regional hubs to assist in developing, negotiating and implementing trade policies and agreements that both reflect national priorities and are effective in the rules based global trading system.

Under the Hub and Spokes programme, Samoa benefits from the deployment of a National Trade Adviser based at the Ministry of Trade, Commerce, Industry and Labour and from the placement of a Regional Trade Adviser based at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat in Suva, Fiji.