From 26 till 28 April, the Border Management Programme in Central Asia held a national workshop in Dushanbe on trade facilitation for veterinary and phytosanitary services. The workshop assisted national authorities in assessing their trade facilitation measures and trained authorities in the areas covered by the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement and on sanitary and phytosanitary measures. This is the third workshop of its kind conducted by the BOMCA Programme in the Central Asian region, following similar activities implemented in March of this year in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

The workshop was conducted by experts from the Food and Veterinary Service of Latvia, who supported developing recommendations and draft action plans on trade facilitation measures applied by the sanitary and phytosanitary authorities. The recommended actions build upon the results of the legal and trade analysis of the existing legal framework and practices for compliance with the provisions of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.