Brussels, 16/11/2009 (Agence Europe) - In a report presented at the WTO on Thursday 12 November, the European Commission announced that the EU spent €1.01 billion between 2006 and 2008 to finance trade facilitation with 95 projects to step up capacity and strengthen technical assistance for developing countries. The projects, which aim to simply import and export procedures in these countries to boost their ability to seize opportunities provided by trade flows and market opening, are part of the European global commitment on aid to trade, which reached over €7 billion last year. Funding has been allocated to support projects distributed geographically as follows: - 21% in Asia, 18% in Africa, 18% in Latin America and the Caribbean, 4% in the Middle East, 2% in Oceania, and 37% in the countries of Europe that are not EU member states, especially the Balkans and the Community of Independent States. The European Commission states that projects backed by the EU include: - a project in Tunisia funded by way of €50 million to increase the effectiveness of services and reduce costs entailed by delays for companies through logical and customs procedure improvements; - a project in Chad funded up to €2 million aimed at strengthening institutional capacity and making the commercial environment more auspicious; - and a project in Paraguay, financed by way of €6 million, aimed at strengthening Paraguayan customs capacity to simplify customs procedures in that country. According to the WTO, trade facilitation can be defined as the elimination of obstacles to the crossing of borders by goods. A chapter of the Doha Round is devoted to this. (E.H./transl.jl)