Aid for trade

This briefing paper argues that the availability of trade-related assistance is not enough to fulfil the development dimension of the Doha Work Programme. It states that the provision of aid is not enough of a strategy to bring about pro-development outcomes, and that aid for trade should not be used as a carrot to offset liberalisation policies. Following in this vein, it argues that trade negotiations within the context of the Doha Round have to be negotiated and agreed upon on the basis of the benefit that they will bring for poverty reduction and human development.

Key points of the paper are:

• there is a need to ensure that trade-related assistance is provided in order to enhance the trading capacity of developing countries and make sure they benefit from new market access opportunities and avoid any negative consequences
• Aid for trade packages address this gap, to an extent, facilitating financial and technical assistance, and specific inputs such as addressing supply-side constraints in developing countries
• however, aid for trade should not be seen merely as an instrument to help countries reach further levels of trade liberalisation; the acceptance of aid packages should not be viewed as a trade-off in exchange for a commitment to an overly ambitious liberalisation agenda
• emphasis needs to be given to the design and implementation of aid packages: emphasis on a negotiating outcome that truly responds to the interests of developing countries is itself the best step towards ensuring gains for developing countries
• according to the Doha Programme the provision of technical assistance and capacity-building are the right of developing countries. Therefore aid for trade should be untied, comprehensive, demand-driven, sufficient and incremental to existing programmes, predictable and available in the long term.