Friday, June 28, 2019: The Division of Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry held its bi-annual retreat, aimed at taking stock of its work relative to the implementation of Liberia Post Accession Plan -LPAP. The LPAP sets out the institutional frame work for implementing reforms across Ministries & Agencies of government, as  required for trade liberalization in the economy. The bi-annual retreat was held at the John Gbedze Beach Resort in Marshall, Robertsfield  Highway in Margibi County.

The Retreat brought together members of the Senior Management Team (S.M.T) at the Commerce Ministry,  technicians from the Division of Foreign Trade and trade related M&As including, the  National Standards Laboratory, Ministry of Agriculture, Liberia Chamber of Commerce, National Investment Commission, Liberia Business Association, among others.

                     
The participants specifically looked at key areas such as Liberia’s commitment Matrix, investment climate and incentives, functionality of the enquiry points, transparency & notification, SPS & TBT regime, Liberia’s Standard infra-structure State of Play, doing business indicators and ranking of the WB, intellectual property rights, amongst others.

Speaking during the one day bi-annual retreat, Deputy Minister for Commerce and Trade services, A.E. Nyema Wisner, took a retrospection of how Liberia became    member of the World Trade Organization on July 15, 2016 becoming the 163rd member of the World Trade Organization.
 

Mr. Wisner, deputizing for Commerce and Industry Minister, Professor Wilson K. Tarpeh, noted that the acceptance of Liberia’s Memorandum of Foreign Trade Regime by the WTO obligates it (Liberia)   to commitments to press for reforms across several sectors of government. “Therefore, implementation of these reforms has to be coordinated amongst ministries and agencies.
 

 The Deputy Minister for Commerce and Trade Services further admonished the Division of Foreign Trade at the Commerce Ministry to take keen note of its responsibility to drive the foreign trade regime and coordinate the implementation of commitments made by Liberia as required by the WTO. He also commended the participants for their contributions to the one-day retreat.
 

The retreat is held bi-annually to bring together stakeholders so that they can technically take stock of the achievements, challenges and strategize for the future.
 
       
 Jacob N.B. Parley
 Communications Director