7. AITIC and the Aid for Trade Initiative
A. AITIC’s Approach to Aid for Trade
AITIC was established in Geneva in 1998 as an association, and later transformed into an intergovernmental organisation in 2004. AITIC’s objective is to assist the less-advantaged countries (i.e. resource-constrained developing countries and economies in transition, with a priority to the least-developed countries and countries without permanent representation in Geneva) to effectively participate in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and in the multilateral trading system. Through trade-related technical assistance, AITIC provides better understanding of trade policy issues and the multilateral trading system and prepares its Members for negotiations and other activities of the WTO .All the activities of AITIC are part of AFT.
Until 2007, AITIC provided input on its activities to the Trade Capacity Building Database of the WTO/OECD. As of 2008, data on assistance provided under AFT is reported to the Creditor Reporting System (CRS). AITIC activities come under the first AFT category “Trade Policy and Regulations”.
In 2007, AITIC submitted its answer to the OECD/WTO donor questionnaire, which outlines the Agency’s AFT strategy. This response is available in the “Aid for Trade at a Glance 2007: Country & Agency Chapters” report of the OECD.
This page will describe a few of the activities of the Agency, focusing on the role it played in carrying forward the discussions on AFT, and in particular in helping countries to access AFT.
B. AITIC’s Input to the Aid for Trade Initiative
1. Drawing Attention to Recipients’ Aid for Trade (AFT) Needs – Pre and post-Trade Policy Review (TPR) Sessions
In order to contribute to the monitoring effort undertaken by the WTO, AITIC assists less-advantaged WTO members in including their AFT priorities within their TPR report through preparatory seminars (e.g. the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS)). AITIC also organises post-TPR sessions (i.e. in 2007 for Central African Republic, Gabon and the OECS; in 2008 for the Dominican Republic). In these sessions, national delegations, including the private sector, have the opportunity to draw the attention of the international community (bilateral donors, Inter-governmental Organisations and private investors, etc.) to the national needs for trade-related assistance. The sessions also provide the government with an opportunity to present, in an informal context, several development projects or programmes, which would benefit from a contribution or the involvement of the international community. Intensified connections with bilateral donors and multilateral agencies are developed. For more information about this service provided by AITIC, please click here.
2. Raising Awareness of the Aid for Trade Initiative
Responding to requests from less-advantaged countries, AITIC organises meetings as well as national and regional workshops (e.g. in Cambodia and Lao PDR) in order to raise awareness of the AFT initiative among all stakeholders. In 2007 and 2008, the Agency organised a cycle of consultative meetings about AFT involving prospective recipients, bilateral and multilateral donors. Overall, the consultations helped to identify stakeholders’ specific concerns about AFT implementation and the Revised Aid for Trade Questionnaire. Furthermore, these consultations raised awareness about key facts, main developments and upcoming events in the area of AFT. As a contribution to the AFT discussions, AITIC has published several reports on the outstanding questions and important challenges facing AFT stakeholders. The most recent Background Notes (April 2008) on the subject are entitled Trade Facilitation and Aid for Trade: Unlocking the Landlocked, and The Aid for Trade Questionnaire.
3. Contributing to the AFT Monitoring Process
AITIC follows closely the AFT monitoring process, which has proven to be conceptually difficult to measure. In 2007 the Agency participated in the cycle of regional reviews and prepared analytical reports for the attention of its Participating Members. These Members have expressed their appreciation for AITIC’s services. As part of the monitoring process, recipient countries were requested during summer 2007 to provide information regarding their AFT needs and the assistance already received by replying to a questionnaire. The response rate from recipient countries was low. The 2008 AFT roadmap recommended that the self-assessment tool is simpler, more user-friendly, and more relevant to national planning. In this context, a symposium on Identifying Indicators for Monitoring Aid for Trade organised by the WTO was held on 15-16 September 2008. During this two-day meeting, a toolbox of indicators in line with the WTO’s mandate—which would eventually be used by all AFT implementing partners—was selected to provide information on 1) financial flows, 2) trade capacity building and 3) trade performance.
AITIC has contributed to the implementation of the roadmap by organising, in cooperation with the OECD, a workshop on the Aid for Trade (AFT) Self-Assessment Questionnaire and a second round table on The 2009 Aid for Trade Monitoring Questionnaire in April and September 2008, respectively. These workshops provided delegates from recipient countries, donor countries and international agencies with the opportunity to hold consultations between them aiming at spurring a better tailoring of the monitoring tool to the specificities of the recipient countries.
4. Assisting LDCs and other low-income countries to access AFT
To facilitate recipient countries’ access to AFT funding, AITIC launched its Handbook of AFT Providers in June 2009. This handbook contains detailed information on AFT policies of a number of donors, including priority target countries, types of activities financed and procedures to apply for funding.
C. AITIC’s Sponsoring Members
Three of AITIC’s four Sponsoring Members (Ireland, Sweden, and Switzerland ) are major donors of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD. Their AFT is channelled either directly to the beneficiary countries or through multilateral agencies. As part of their trade-related assistance efforts, Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland participate in the Integrated Framework for LDCs. AITIC is considered as an important component of their support to LDCs and non-resident countries.
D. AITIC’s Other Partnerships
In addition to the Sponsoring Members’ contributions for AITIC’s permanent programmes, the Agency organises a number of projects financed through other partnerships. These projects reflect the specific regional or thematic priorities of the donor countries.
1. Financial support: Australia, Liechtenstein, UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), New Zealand.
2. In-kind contributions: Brazil, Macedonia, AITIC’s Participating Members and numerous international organisations (e.g. International Trade Centre (ITC), Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (OHRLLS)).
3. Memoranda of Understanding with other agencies and regional groups: International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICDF – Chinese Taipei), International Law Institute (ILI),Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).
4. Observer status: within WIPO’s Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC).
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