• WTO and SDT

WTO and SDT

This paper takes the position that the WTO’s Doha Round will promote development only if two conditions are met. First, an ambitious and balanced market access package in key areas such as agriculture or services. Second, an expanded "aid for trade” (AFT) package, both in general and with particular reference to the Doha Development Agenda process. This paper offers justifications for the implementation of such a policy, and recommendations on how to take the policy forward. Some of the justifications it gives are:

• some developing country members will need to cover significant adjustment and implementation costs in relation to shifts in global trade policy
• one impact of the liberalisation of agricultural trade and the phasing out of export subsidies will be an increase in the price of food imports, so this needs to be offset
• compensation will be required for countries who stand to lose the advantages reaped from preferential trade agreements
• one of the short-term impacts of trade liberalisation may be extended periods of unemployment or unemployed labour and other resources
• financial inputs are required to tackle supply side constraints such as infrastructural deficiencies
• research has shown that under the right circumstances improvements in such areas as trade in services and trade facilitation could significantly contribute to poverty reduction

Some of the suggested steps towards the launch of an AFT initiative are:

• WTO Ministers should provide a clear mandate for the Aid for Trade initiative, including a roadmap towards its effective launch and its status vis-à vis other competing programmes
• given the centrality of supply side constraints to poverty reduction in low income countries, beneficiaries must take the lead in the design and management of AFT
• research needs to take place on specific factors such as quantifying the cost of AFT globally and the regional priorities for AFT.

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