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Aid for Trade

The Hong-Kong Ministerial Declaration created a new WTO work programme on Aid-for-Trade with the aim of helping developing countries, particularly LDCs, to build the supply-side capacity and trade related infrastructure by mobilizing additional action on aid for trade.

A two-track process was set in motion in this work programme:

1. The WTO Director General engaged in a series of consultations with partners agencies and donors to define appropriate mechanisms to secure additional financial resources for Aid-for-Trade;

2. The WTO Director General created a Task Force on how to operationalize this additional funding. The Task force delivered its report in July 2006 and then endorsed by GC in October 2006. The report focuses on strengthening the demand side of aid-for-trade, the donor response and the bridge between the two at global regional and national level.

To achieve this, the Task Force called on the WTO to establish a strengthened system for monitoring and evaluating Aid-for-Trade. The idea is to create incentives, both at the beneficiary and the donor level, in order to increase the attention given to trade issues by all stakeholders.

On 14 December 2006, WTO Director General outlined a proposal for monitoring and evaluation on three levels:

1. Global monitoring

2. Donor monitoring

3. In-country reporting

Three regional Aid for Trade reviews, organized by the WTO together with corresponding regional development banks, and one Global review took place in 2007. To examine SPS capacity building needs and responses at a regional level, the STDF organized three regional consultation workshops between donors, international organizations and beneficiaries as part of these regional meetings:

1. Latin America and the Caribbean: the workshop took place on 12 September in Lima - Peru, and had a sub-regional focus on Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.

   a)    Summary report of the meeting - Lima

   b)    Conclusions and Recommendations - Lima

2. Asia: the workshop took place on 18 September in Manila - Philippines, and had a sub-regional focus on Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Vietnam.

   a)    Summary report of the meeting - Manila

   b)    Conclusions and Recommendations - Manila

3. Africa: the workshop took place on 30 September in Dar es Salaam - Tanzania, and had a sub-regional focus on Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

   a)    Summary report of the meeting - Dar es Salaam

   b)    Conclusions and Recommendations - Dar es Salaam

Conclusions and recommendations of the workshops were reported back in the main regional Aid for Trade meetings.  A report on the workshops was given during the Global Review of Aid for Trade in the WTO General Council on 19 November 2007.

  Site Last Updated on February, 2008