Date

Events

Highlights

• The Aid for Trade Work Programme 2010-2011 (WTO document WT/COMTD/AFT/W/16) seeks to reinforce six main aspects:

  1) honouring pledges and mobilisation for additional resources;
  2) mainstreaming trade into national policies;
  3) heightening regional integration;
  4) implementing AFT strategies effectively;
  5) evaluating AFT’s impact; and
  6) intensifying cooperation with the private sector. 

• The Work Programme is complemented by an indicative calendar of Aid for Trade meetings (Annex 1 of the document) culminating in a Third Global Review of Aid for Trade in 2012

12-13 November 2009

Meeting of the Technical Regional Group of the Asian Development Bank (AsDB) (Bangkok, Thailand)

• To examine the elements of a work programme regarding the growth model drawn from Asian exports, the growth discrepancies within Asia and between Asia and the Pacific, possible activities, the expansion of the Technical Regional Group’s composition, and the planning of a Report.

10 November 2009

Joint Meeting of the Development Assistance Committee on (OECD’s DAC) and the Working Party of the Trade Committee on Aid for Trade (Paris, France)

• Presentation of the OECD’s working guidelines on Aid for Trade for the period 2010-2012.
• Debate amongst members having followed trade-related assistance to:
  • exchange experiences on conceptual issues;
  • examine the methodology and evaluation tools, and
  • analyse the lessons learned from the efforts undertaken for the evaluation of trade-related activities.

9 November 2009

Ad Hoc Consultative Group on Aid for Trade (Paris, France)

• Analysis of the monitoring and evaluation approaches for Aid for Trade.

• To assess the progress made in the implementation and follow-up processes of Aid for Trade.
• To exchange views on the way aid flows can be maintained in the context of the global recession, through securing additional and predictable funding.
• To endeavour to respect the agreements with other organisations in order to increase the quality of multilateral exchanges.

• To focus on the importance of trade in development policies.
• To identify and eliminate the main capacity problems hindering the increase of exports.
• To emphasise the need of increased and more effective financing.
• To maintain the political commitments for future action.

• To enable regional economic communities, their member states and the international community to put in place an approach focused on the said corridor in order to reduce cross-border trade costs in Subsaharan Africa.
• To enable producers and traders to become more competitive, hence increased economic growth, further creation of jobs, and enhanced poverty reduction.
• To take the necessary measures to meet to electricity supply demand of industrial consumers, businesses and households.

http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/devel_e/a4t_e/aid4trade_e.htm

27 February 2009

2009-2011 Roadmap

• Presented at the ninth meeting on Aid for Trade, it is meant to be used by all the parties involved in the implementation process of Aid for Trade.
• Its main objectives are to: 1) ensure that the impetus is maintained despite the economic slowdown; 2) favour the Aid for Trade ownership of developing countries, and 3) follow up the implementation process by focusing on sectorial, national and regional priorities.

• To put in place technical cooperation strategies with regard to SPS measures.
• To improve SPS results, given that these are a priority target within Aid for Trade.
• To focus on the integration of Peru into the global economy.

Date

Events

Highlights

Reviews will be held in selected candidate countries which are ready for implementation. The objective of the reviews will be to showcase on progress through:

• Assessing or “road-testing” AFT plans
• Identifying key priorities, and
• Agreeing on how these plans and priorities should be implemented

• After validation at the 8-9 September 2008 meeting, programme proposals for eight countries (i.e. Benin, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Lesotho, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal and Yemen) will be tabled for approval and funding at this Ministerial Conference
• Agenda
• Concept Paper

The AFT Policy Dialogue will focus on the four following key issues:

• Getting the arguments right : why AFT matters
• Getting the diagnosis and priorities right: from needs to binding constraints
• Getting the delivery right: South-South cooperation and challenges of Aid Effectiveness
• Getting the right feedback: evaluating AFT programmes

• Adoption of the revised AFT questionnaire
• Preparation of the Second AFT Global Review

The main elements of the Finnish AFT strategy:

• Key principles of Finnish aid: ownership, coherence, key role of Finnish embassies in AFT implementation and emphasis on fields for which Finland has a competitive know-how;
• AFT priorities:
• Themes: private sector development; information society; environment and climate change and cross-cutting themes, such as gender equality, promotion of decent work and civil society;
• Sectors: agriculture, forestry and sustainable energy development;
• Geographical focus areas: long-term development partner countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia; other countries with close development links to Finland;
• Aid categories: productive capacity building, trade policy and regulations and trade development. Possibility to increase Finland’s participation in economic infrastructure.
• Objective to increase Finland’s trade-related assistance to EUR 15 million per year by 2010;
• Target to increase multilateral assistance to trade and development related agencies to EUR 10 million per year by 2010, with a focus on LDCs;
• 2006-2007 average AFT financing commitments: EUR 54.7 million;
• Readiness to support aid packages in Southern Africa in the context of the Economic Partnership Agreements.

• To share AFT recipient countries views about the draft monitoring questionnaire and suggest improvements thereby ensuring full ownership of the AFT monitoring mechanism by less-advantaged countries

15-16 September 2008

Expert Symposium on Monitoring and Evaluation, WTO

• The following areas of discrepancy among all stakeholders identified during the Global Review in November 2007 will be further discussed:
• how to give greater emphasis to country monitoring;
• how to capture the regional dimension of AFT; and
• how to expand the scope of the donor - and partner- country self-assessments.
• Review of performance indicators
• Background document

• To assess the results from the first year of AFT monitoring and discuss possible ways to improve this process
• To discuss the donor questionnaire in view of its forthcoming update
• Presentation of the results of a feasibility study on an AFT knowledge network

• Presentation by UNIDO of its concept paper on “Aid for Trade: An Industrial Agenda for LDCs” and its supply-side approach
• Presentation by the WTO: Review of SPS needs in a selected number of LDCs
• Country presentations by Rwanda and Cambodia
• Overview of eight pilot programmes under the Enhanced Integrated Framework
• Report

The event will be composed of three complementary segments:

• “Marketplace of Ideas” to illustrate innovative ideas and best practice examples in aid effectiveness
• Roundtable meetings on country ownership, alignment, harmonisation, managing for results and mutual accountability inter alia
• A ministerial-level meeting to endorse the Accra Agenda for Action, which seeks to deepen the implementation of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness

• Harmonization
• Public and private partnership
• Ownership

• State of play of the 2008 AFT Roadmap implementation
• Update from regional development banks on the preparations for holding national and sub-regional reviews in late 2008, early 2009
• OECD presentation on the design of new donor and partner country questionnaires, the feasibility of a “knowledge network” on AFT
• Presentation by UNIDO of the Trade Capacity Building Inter-Agency Resource Guide
• Reports of recent Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) events held in Cambodia, Guatemala and Uganda
• Preparations for the Expert Symposium on evaluation to be held in September 2008

Objectives of the Brainstorming:

• To obtain recipient countries’ views on the AFT monitoring process
• To clarify the benefits for recipient countries of participating in the AFT monitoring process
• To make the AFT questionnaire more useful for national trade development planning purposes and more reader-friendly
• To identify whom the questionnaire should be sent to

Discussion of AFT in the Caribbean region:

• The regional experience of the Caribbean
• The role of the private sector
• The Economic Partnership Agreements
• AFT specific sectoral challenges
• A plan of action for the Caribbean: establishing a regional AFT network
• The way forward

• Analysis of the gaps between SPS needs and the current technical assistance provided
• Focus on market access challenges

• Analysis of the gaps between SPS needs and the current technical assistance provided
• Focus on market access challenges

• Analysis of the gaps between SPS needs and the current technical assistance provided
• Coverage: Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam
• Focus on market access challenges

High-level Meeting on Trade Facilitation and AFT co-organised by AITIC and the UN-OHRLLS [UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States], UNCTAD XII- pre-event, Accra, Ghana

Two objectives:

• To examine the role that AFT and the negotiations on trade facilitation can play in bridging the infrastructure deficit in LLDCs
• To take stock and follow-up on the Almaty Programme of Action in view of the next mid-term review

This report includes an implementation matrix, which was prepared to monitor progress on the implementation of the joint EU AFT Strategy.

The first monitoring exercise since the adoption of the EU Strategy on AFT underlines the following conclusions:

• A number of Members states have already developed specific national strategies/ guidelines on AFT; others intend to do so or make reference to the joint EU AFT Strategy as their political guidelines.
• By the end of 2007, 20 Member States had already ongoing AFT activities.
• Regarding trade-related assistance (comprising trade policy and regulations and trade development), the EU Member States and the EC provided EUR 640 million and EUR 940 million respectively in 2006.
• Regarding overall AFT (comprising all AFT categories, including trade-related assistance), the EU Member States and the EC provided EUR 4.715 billion and EUR 2.564 billion respectively in 2006.
• Improvement of coordination of donor activities, including through the Integrated Framework for LDCs.
• Ongoing efforts from the EU in integrating gender issues, environmental, social and economic sustainability concerns into AFT programmes.
• Finland , France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom are well advanced in terms of implementing the recommendations contained in the EU AFT Strategy.
• For Asia and the ACP countries, the principles set out in the EU Strategy are largely put into operation, whereas other regions are less advanced in the implementation of these principles

• To reflect on the challenges for developing countries in responding to the OECD/WTO self-assessment form

Approval of the Aid for Trade Roadmap for 2008 including the following projects:

• To simplify the self-assessment questionnaires
• To identify performance indicators
• To hold a selected number of national and sub-regional AFT reviews
• To establish regional AFT networks

China donated USD 200’000 to the Aid for Trade Framework

DG Lamy also underlined the importance of launching the enhanced IF, of utilising the STDF [Standards and Trade Development Facility] to make AFT successful and of framing a creative response to meet non-LDCs AFT needs

Minutes of Meeting: WT/COMTD/AFT/M/6

24-25 January 2008

Aid for Trade: Global and Regional Perspectives, UNCTAD XII pre-event, Bangkok, Thailand

• Discussion on ways to maintain the momentum of moves to implement the AFT initiative among Agencies that are part of the Working Group on Trade of the United Nations Executive Committee on Economic and Social Affairs

Date

Events

Highlights

13 December 2007

Presentation by the World Bank entitled Aid for Trade: Reducing Trading Costs to Promote Growth, WTO

• Presentation of the World Bank’s study, Connecting to Compete: Trade Logistics in the Global Economy: Trade logistics - or the capacity to connect to international markets to ship goods - is critical for developing countries to improve their competitiveness, reap the benefits of globalisation, and fight poverty more effectively in an increasingly integrated world.

Three high level round tables on:

• Integration of LDCs into the global economy and role of duty-free & quota-free market access
• Productive Capacity Building for Economic Transformation
• South-South Cooperation – Towards new initiatives in cotton

20 November 2007

Presentation of Norway’s Action Plan on Aid for Trade

• Additional resources for AFT: fifty per cent increase from 2007 to 2008
• Resources to be channelled through multilateral organisations: ITC, UNIDO, World Bank, UNCTAD, WCO as well as the enhanced Integrated Framework
• Thematic priorities: “ good governance and fight against corruption”, “ regional trade” and "women and trade”

20-21 November 2007

Mobilizing Aid for Trade: A Global Review, WTO

• First year review of the AFT monitoring results (global flows, donor and partner country questionnaires) and presentation of the WTO’s monitoring agenda for the coming year
• Evaluation of the results of the three AFT regional reviews and preparation of regional roadmaps
• WTO General Council Debate on Aid for Trade
• Programme
• AITIC – Report on Meeting
• Minutes of Meeting: WT/GC/M/111

19 November 2007

WTO Technical Workshop on AFT on Monitoring and Evaluation and AFT Break-out Sessions, WTO

• Technical level dialogue on monitoring and evaluating AFT including discussions on improving both the quantitative and the qualitative measurements of AFT
• Three simultaneous AFT sessions on mainstreaming, regional approaches and public-private partnerships

16 November 2007

WTO Committee on Trade and Development – Session on Aid for Trade

• Regional Development Banks will brief the Committee on Trade and Development on the results of the three regional reviews
• Discussion of 2007 Aid for Trade Report
• Presentation by the OECD on results of donor and recipient country surveys
• Note on the Meeting: WT/COMTD/AFT/M/5

• Discussions on the “Aid for Trade at a glance” and “Overview of the first Survey Results” papers to be submitted to the WTO Global Review on 20-21 November 2007:

• Dropping of General Budget Support as a proxy for trade-related adjustment assistance
• Suggestions for improvement of the survey

• Proposal for an OECD work programme on evaluating AFT

• International Monetary and Financial Committee “stressed the importance of delivering AFT commitments and encouraged ongoing initiatives by the WTO and other institutions to enhance AFT and improve its coordination and delivery”
• Development Committee “stressed the need to integrate trade and competitiveness within national development strategies, while stepping up support for AFT,” as proposed by the World Bank and the IMF

• To increase the collective contributions of the European Union (EU) AFT within the ODA commitments, to raise overall EU aid gradually
• To enhance the pro-poor focus and quality of EU AFT
• To increase the EC and Member States’ donors capacity in line with globally agreed aid effectiveness principles
• ACP-specific angle: building upon, fostering and supporting ACP regional integration processes
• Supporting effective AFT monitoring and reporting.

• Presentations from representatives of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) on the issue of building productive capacity
• Presentations from representatives of the ITC and the IMF on assistance for adjustment, trade diversification and competitiveness: in the area of financing for adjustment, the IMF addresses the needs of its member countries through the trade integration mechanism (TIM) and the exogenous shocks facility (ESF)
• Note on the meeting: WT/COMTD/AFT/M/4

1-2 October 2007

WTO Regional Aid for Trade Review
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

• Focus Africa
  • Report and recommendations
• STDF Workshop on 30 September 2007
• OECD Workshop on 2 October 2007
• Regional review on aid for trade sees solid and substantial increase in EU trade assistance to Africa and reaffirms support for regional integration
• ADB Press Release

• Participating at the Conference were 34 donors countries, 5 LDCs, and 11 international organisations and financial institutions
• Raised USD 170 million for the EIF Trust Fund amounting to 70 per cent of the projected needs for the first five years

25 September 2007

WTO Committee on Trade and Development – Session on Aid for Trade

• Session on “Building Productive Capacity”
• Session on “Adjustment and Trade Diversification”

19-20 September 2007

WTO Regional Aid for Trade Review
Manila, Philippines

• Focus Asia and the Pacific http://www.aric.adb.org/aft_asia.php
  • Report and recommendations
• STDF Workshop on 18 September 2007 discussing the role of the private sector in AFT
• OECD Workshop on 20 September 2007
• Regional Review seeks to improve the delivery of Aid for Trade in Asia and the Pacific

13-14 September 2007

WTO Regional Aid for Trade Review
Lima, Peru

• Focus Latin America and Carribean http://www.iadb.org/
  • Report and recommendations
• STDF Workshop on 12 September 2007 discussing SPS measures and AFT
• OECD Workshop on 14 September 2007

9-10 August 2007

WTO – AITIC Trade Policy Review Seminar for OECS WTO Members
Castries, Saint Lucia

• Discussion of the WTO Secretariat Report project in view of the 5-7 November TPR of the OECS
• Discussion on OECS members views on AFT
• Presentation of AITIC’s proposal for an OECS infrastructure and maritime transportation project in the framework of AFT

17-18 July 2007

AITIC- ITC National Workshop: Trade Policy Opportunities and Development Challenges
Vientiane, Lao PDR

• The enhanced IF and the Lessons learned from the IF Process in Cambodia
• The Progress, the Challenges and the way forward for the IF process in Lao PDR
• The State of Play in AFT

11 July 2007

UNDP-UNCTAD Brainstorming on Capacity Development in Trade-Related Assistance: Concepts and Practical Experiences

• Capacity-building and capacity development in trade-related assistance: conceptual and operational differences
• Best practices and critical areas of trade capacity development

10-12 July 2007

AITIC- ITC National Workshop: Trade Policy Opportunities and Development Challenges
Phnom Penh, Cambodia

• The State of Play in AFT
• The New Structure of the enhanced IF
• Cambodia ’s Experience with the IF
• Cambodia ’s Revised DTIS and Action Matrix: Steps Forward
• Priority Sectors for enhanced IF Assistance:
• Rice, Fruits and Cashews
• Tourism

9 July 2007

WTO Committee on Trade and Development – Session on Aid for Trade

• Session on “Trends in Trade-related Infrastructure Investments” with presentations by the World Bank, the OECD, the European Communities and Japan
• Update of the “Calendar of Events” on AFT
• Note on the meeting: WT/COMTD/AFT/M/3

21 June 2007

WTO Committee on Trade and Development – Informal Session on Aid for Trade

• Discussion of the “Calendar of Events (WT/COMTD/AFT/W/2/Rev.2)” on AFT
• Presentations by the IADB, the ADB, and the AfDB on the planned “Regional Reviews”
• Presentation by the OECD on the donor and recipient country questionnaires

• Donor and Recipient AFT questionnaires
• Presentation of possible AFT proxies within the CRS nomenclature

19 June 2007

WTO Committee on Trade and Development – Session on Aid for Trade

• Panel on “Capacity-Building to Facilitate Trade” with the World Bank, the World Customs Organisation, the OECD and the WTO
• Panel on “Capacity-Building to Meet SPS Standards” with the WTO, the FAO, the World Organization for Animal Health and the WHO referring to the Standards and Trade Development Facility (SDTF)
• Tabling of Egypt’s paper on AFT (WT/COMTD/AFT/W/3)
• Note by the Secretariat giving an overview of the Standards and Trade Development Facility (WT/COMTD/AFT/W/4)
• Note on the meeting: WT/COMTD/AFT/M/2

3-5 June 2007

ITC/ICTSD Dialogue: The Private Sector and Aid for Trade, Montreux, Switzerland

• Explore strategic roles of the private sector in AFT
• Case studies and success stories

June 2007

• To plan the various meetings scheduled for the second half of 2007 including the regional reviews

24 May 2007

Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Meeting on Aid for Trade, London

• Stocktaking of developments since the submission of the recommendations of the AFT Task Force
• Private sector and AFT

Working Group on the Joint WTO/OECD Trade Capacity Building Database (TCBDB)

• Preparations for the AFT Annual Debate (Global Review on Aid for Trade)
• Endorsement of the use of an enhanced CRS to monitor AFT flows
• Past reporting (up to end 2007) in the joint WTO/OECD Trade Capacity Building Database will be integrated into the CRS
• Current CRS categories i.e. an aggregate of several CRS subcategories including trade development and Economic Infrastructure will be used as proxy measures for two AFT categories - Building Productive Capacity and Trade-related Infrastructure, respectively

3 May 2007

AITIC Forum on Aid for Trade and enhanced IF

• Exchange of views on outstanding issues, experiences and lessons learned for all Stakeholders
• Building blocks for the implementation and monitoring of the AFT initiative and EIF

• Adoption of the Compendium of documents containing a detailed description of the enhanced IF
• Outstanding questions: Trust Fund management, monitoring and evaluation
• Focus on country ownership and capacity building
• Postponement of the launch of the enhanced IF

• Discussion of Trade Finance Facilitation Programmes, which provide global coverage to SMEs and small banks and have a very high leverage on trade

26-27 April 2007

ACP Informal Workshop on Aid for Trade in collaboration with the Commonwealth Secretariat, UNCTAD and WTO

• Discuss possible actions for key stakeholders in the AFT initiative
• Exchange of views to implement the Task Force recommendations
• Help the ACP Countries to establish their needs and priorities for better participation in the initiative

12 April 2007

AITIC Meeting: The Private Sector in Aid for Trade and the enhanced IF

• Maximising potential benefits for the private sector in developing countries
• Involving the developed country private sector

12 April 2007

AITIC Meeting: Perspectives from Bilateral and Multilateral Agencies and Regional Development Banks

• What role will bilateral, multilateral and regional development institutions play?
• What constraints are they facing in the implementation process?

2 April 2007

WTO Committee on Trade and Development – Session on Aid for Trade

• Broad support for the monitoring architecture and tentative schedule for regional reviews in Africa, Asia and Latin America
• Many donors in the process of reinforcing their own AFT strategies in light of the WTO process
• Recipients in the course of identifying AFT priorities and learning about mechanisms to access available financing
• Presentation by the OECD of the OECD DAC database, using the CRS, on which the monitoring at the global level will be based; definitions of AFT proxies, AFT baseline figures and future trends
• Note on the meeting: WT/COMTD/AFT/M/1

Consultation with intergovernmental agencies on the work in progress of the OECD on:

• Measuring additionality through CRS and use of DAC database for monitoring AFT
• Update of CRS according to the Task Force Recommendations which includes a more accurate identification of needs and responses and new definitions on the scope of AFT
• Global Monitoring of Aid for Trade Flows

19 March 2007

WTO: First AFT Advisory Group Meeting

• Discussion of the role of the WTO in coordinating and monitoring trade-related assistance

27 February 2007

AITIC Consultative Meeting with Donor Community

• Outcome of meeting with recipient countries
• Donor perspectives on additionality, steps forward and aid effectiveness
• The role of the WTO in AFT

22 February 2007

AITIC Consultative Meeting for Potential Recipient Countries

• Outstanding matters and assistance needs
• Involving non-residents
• Improving private sector participation
• Building trade policy and mainstreaming capacities
• Establishing implementation units
• Strengthening the trade and development interface
• Covering AFT in the Trade Policy Review

Date

Events

Highlights

14 December 2006

WTO Director-General’s Report to the General Council on Monitoring and Evaluation

• Donor commitments reaffirmed, “non-traditional” donors signal interest to join
• Problem of defining AFT
• Monitoring and evaluation at the WTO
• Periodic reviews in the Committee for Trade and Development and annual General Council debate
• Global monitoring (review of WTO/OECD database); use of Creditor Reporting System (CRS) of the OECD/DAC
• Progress reports from agencies
• In-country assessments with a focus on adequacy of financial resources and results
• Ad hoc Consultative Group to assist in global reviews and advocacy and fundraising support
• AFT to be part of Trade Policy Reviews

• Endorsement of AFT Task Force Recommendations of 27 July
• “AFT important in its own right” and not “a substitute for the development benefits that would flow from a successful Doha Round”
• Update by the Director General on the ongoing consultations with all stakeholders on:
• Clarifying resources pledged by donors since Gleneagles in 2005
• Discussing how the WTO's own internal mechanisms could best be utilised for monitoring
• Minutes of the General Council meeting: WT/GC/M/104

27 July 2006

WTO Director-General’s Report to the General Council on securing additional AFT funding

Status of consultations regarding:

• Baseline for measuring additionality
• Criteria for grant or loan disbursements
• Disbursement procedures and a possible target figure
• Minutes of the General Council meeting: WT/GC/M/103

27 July 2006

Task Force submits Recommendations on Aid for Trade

• http://docsonline.wto.org/DDFDocuments/t/WT/AFT/1.doc
• Scope of AFT
• Operationalising AFT
• Objectives
• Principles
• Strengthening “demand side” and donor response
• Strengthening the “bridge” between demand and donor response at the global, regional and country level
• Monitoring and evaluation
• Establishment of an Advisory Group on AFT to oversee the implementation of the aforementioned recommendations

• Expressed joint support to strengthen inter-institutional coordination to effectively deliver on AFT
• Emphasized the role of regional integration and cooperation

7 April 2006

Development Committee, Washington, D.C.: World Bank Background report:
Trade Progress Report: The Doha Development Agenda and Aid for Trade: Hong Kong and Beyond

• Broad definition of AFT
• “Supply-side” constraints, need to define “trade-related infrastructure”
• Inclusion of adjustment unclear
• IF Task Force state of play:
• IF will remain focused on LDCs
• Focus on technical assistance / project preparation activities and catalytic role in larger projects such as infrastructure

Date

Events

Highlights

• Established AFT Task Force consisting of a representative group of countries to advise on how best to operationalise AFT and ensure that it contributes to the development dimension of the DWP
• Endorsed enhancement of IF for LDCs

2 -3 December 2005

G7 Finance Ministers Meeting, London: Statement by G7 Finance Ministers

• Agreement to collaborate with the IFIs on additional measures “for developing countries to ease adjustment costs and increase their capacity to trade”
• Expectation of “Aid for Trade to increase to $4bn, including through enhancing the IF”
• “In the context of our shared commitments to double aid for Africa by 2010, we agree to give priority to the infrastructure necessary to allow countries to take advantage of the improved opportunities to trade”

27 October 2005

Special DAC Meeting on Aid for Trade, Paris:
Background Note

• Coordinated delivery of TRTA
• Rationale for AFT:
• Adopting and implementing existing WTO obligations
• Addressing supply-side constraints by improving AFT related infrastructure
• Assistance required for adjustment to revenue losses related to trade liberalisation and preference erosion

14 October 2005

LDC WTO Coordinator,
An LDC Contribution: Alternative Proposals to the World Bank/IMF Aid for Trade Proposals

• Enhanced IF to address the value chain
• Create an Adjustment Facility to cope with short term losses and improve competitiveness
• Set up an Infrastructure Fund
• Debt Relief
• Eligibility: LDCs and other low-income countries

22 September 2005

Development Committee, Washington, D.C.: Doha Development Agenda And Aid For Trade: Corrigendum

• The sentence “The staffs of the Bank and Fund would report back to the Development Committee and IMFC at the 2006 Spring Meetings” is deleted

12 September 2005

Development Committee, Washington, D.C.: IMF and World Bank  

Doha Development Agenda and Aid for Trade (Paper prepared by the staff of the IMF and the World Bank)

• Enhanced IF: “most effective channel for trade to tap into existing and additional aid flows”
• Doubts about value of a multilateral fund for priorities identified in the DTIS
• Merit in examining regional or cross-country AFT needs
• Value in strengthening assessment of adjustment needs for existing mechanisms to be better utilised
• “…Serious misgivings about the desirability and effectiveness of a separate fund to address adjustment, given the availability of existing mechanisms”

20 July 2005

Geneva Consultations process:
“Aid for Trade” Initiative – Options to Enhance Support, Non-Paper

• Enhanced IF: main delivery mechanism for AFT
• Additional finance ($5-15 million per country) to enhance IF disbursed over a 10-year period
• New multilateral fund for supply-side constraints and a separate window for adjustment issues
• Eligibility: LDCs, with possible extension to low income developing countries, e.g. all IDA-only recipients through new financing window

6 – 8 July 2005

G8 Summit, Gleneagles, Scotland:
The Gleneagles Communiqué (Africa, Promoting Growth)

• Doubling aid for Africa by 2010 and increasing ODA by around $50bn per year by 2010
• Increasing “help to developing countries to build the physical, human and institutional capacity to trade including trade facilitation measures”
• “[G]rant additional support for trade capacity building to assist LDCs, particularly in Africa, to take advantage of the new opportunities to trade resulting from a positive conclusion” of the Doha negotiations
• Call on the IFIs to “submit proposals to the annual meetings for additional assistance to countries to develop their capacity to trade and ease adjustment in their economies”

10-11 June 2005

G7 & G8 Finance Ministers Meeting, London:
Conclusions on Development

• “…Call on the IFIs to submit proposals for the Annual Meetings for additional assistance to countries to develop their capacity to trade and ease adjustment in their economies, based on a systematic analysis of transition costs, so they can take advantage of more open markets”.

13 May 2005

Letter from World Bank/IMF to Geneva-based Ambassadors

• Call for coordination of a Geneva-based process “on building understanding for proposals for IF and AFT”

17 April 2005

Development Committee, Washington, D.C.:
Aid for Trade: Competitiveness and Adjustment, Joint Note by the Staffs of the IMF and the World Bank

• Strengthening AFT through the IF
• Enhanced IF
• Identifying needs on the basis of the IF Diagnostic Trade Integration Study (DTIS)
• Developing a coherent trade strategy within which additional projects to support trade facilitation and adjustment could be planned
• Eligibility: LDCs and consideration of extending IF to all IDA-only recipients.

2 March 2005

OECD-DAC High Level Forum, Paris:
Paris Declaration of Aid Effectiveness

• Commitment to improve aid quality with a practical plan for streamlining aid to meet the needs of developing countries monitored by definition of measures and standards of performance and accountability
• 12 indicators of progress including a 2010 target

4 – 5 February 2005

G7 Finance Ministers Meeting, London:
Conclusions on Development

• Call for additional assistance
• Scope: adjustment; increasing “capacity to take advantage of more open markets”
• Eligibility: developing countries