The first stakeholder meetings on the Eastern Partnership (EaP) Trade Helpdesk project took place in Armenia, Georgia and Moldova in the end of April, and in Ukraine in early June. The project, funded by EU under its EU4Business initiative, will help companies in these countries to identify trade opportunities with the European Union and within the Eastern Partnership region.

Launched in late 2019, the EaP Trade Helpdesk project is being implemented by the International Trade Centre (ITC), a joint agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization. The five-year project aims to boost the economic and trade relations between the Eastern Partnership countries and the European Union and within the EaP region. The online Helpdesk will allow companies to report on issues they face in export and import and get practical solutions offered by relevant national authorities.

In addition, the project will identify regulatory and procedural trade obstacles through national surveys of non-tariff measures, and provide sector-specific guides on exporting to the EU. Relevant national institutions will be better prepared to collect and process trade in services data for selected sectors, while companies and business support organisations will receive customised capacity building on market analysis to identify new opportunities in the region and the EU.