Summary
The Regional Trade for Development (RT4D) initiative is funded by the Governments of Australia and New Zealand. It assists ASEAN Member States (AMS) in meeting their commitments and realising the advantages offered by the Agreement establishing the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area, or AANZFTA, and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP.
Through the AANZFTA Implementation Support Program (AISP) and the RCEP Implementation Support Program (RISP), RT4D provides tailored support to enhance the capabilities of ASEAN Member States by strengthening skills, building networks, facilitating policy options and ensuring that trade benefits everyone, including Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), women and people with disability.
The Governments of Australia and New Zealand have committed up to AUD 53.3 million to fund RT4D from 2020–21 to 2027–28.
Description
Project Summary
The AANZFTA Implementation Support Program (AISP), implemented through the Regional Trade for Development (RT4D) Facility, supports ASEAN Member States to realise the benefits of AANZFTA through capacity-building support and access to technical expertise.
The project ‘AANZFTA Non-Tariff Measures (NTM) Stocktaking and Work Plan Development’ is approved under the AISP. The project aims to strengthen the capacity of the AANZFTA Committee on Trade in Goods (CTG) and relevant subsidiary bodies to adopt a more systematic, cohesive and evidence-based approach to identifying, prioritising and addressing non-tariff measures and procedural obstacles affecting regional trade in goods. It will:
- identify and assess existing AANZFTA initiatives aimed at addressing non-tariff measures (NTMs) and procedural obstacles affecting regional trade in goods, including their scope, implementation and effectiveness;
- assess relevant ASEAN, sectoral, AANZFTA, World Trade Organization and other trade-related initiatives, including the ASEAN NTM Guidelines, NTM Database and ASEAN Solutions for Investments, Services and Trade (ASSIST);
- identify commonalities, gaps, challenges, good practices and opportunities for improvement, coordination, complementarity and regional replication;
- conduct a sector-wide assessment, with greater emphasis on food, fibre and consumer goods, and import-licensing measures applied to these sectors;
- undertake consultations with government and business stakeholders across all 12 AANZFTA Parties to identify priority areas, shared regional concerns and practical trade-related challenges;
- develop a Stakeholder Consultation Report reflecting government and business priorities, including perspectives from regional business councils, chambers of commerce and relevant business associations;
- develop a list of approximately 8–10 practical, tangible and scalable activities for potential future implementation by the CTG and other relevant subsidiary bodies; and
- facilitate the prioritisation of the top three recommended initiatives, taking into account regional relevance, potential value, inclusivity, feasibility, institutional capacity, delivery pathways and resource requirements.
The Opportunity
RT4D is seeking a consulting firm/organisation or consortium (hereinafter referred to as “the Consultant”) to manage and deliver the project, in close collaboration with the RT4D Facility, AANZFTA Parties, the ASEAN Secretariat and the AANZFTA Committee on Trade in Goods. The final Project outputs will be subject to comments, amendments, and approval from the RT4D Facility Team, the Project Proponent, the ASEAN Secretariat External Economic Relations Division, the AANZFTA Committee on Trade in Goods and Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). The services will be delivered in accordance with the requirements set out in the Request for Proposal (RFP) and Terms of Reference (ToR).
Timeline:
Invitation Issue Date: Wednesday, 28 October 2026
Last Queries Date: 11:59 PM (ICT) Tuesday, 10 November 2026
Closing Date and Time: 11:59 PM (ICT) Saturday, 21 November 2026
Note: This is 3:59 AM (AEDT) Sunday, 22 November 2026. The date shown in this description may therefore differ from the date in the tender documents due to the 4 hour time difference between ICT and AEDT.
Please check RT4D’s website for complete ToR.
