An 'Ambitious' Aid-for-Trade Component
6 June, 2006
Washington Trade Daily
The cost of failure in the round will be felt by all countries Sendanyoye-Rugwabiza a conference sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars. Failure means it likely will not be done 'in the foreseeable future,' she said. 'We can't lose this once in a generation opportunity.'
But while saying that aid for trade has become a 'key pillar' of the Doha Round, the deputy director general also warned that it is not a substitute for market access * or for a successful round.
'We really have an opportunity here to deliver what Doha has promised, which is a development outcome,' said Swedish WTO Ambassador Mia Horn, who is chairing the WTO's aid for trade task force. The initiative also is very important to delivering on the WTO mandate to create coherence in trade policy.
Both WTO officials stressed the need for private sector involvement in the aid for trade initiative * as well higher political commitment.
Should Be De-Linked
But Assistant Director of Tanzania's Ministry of Industry and Trade Bede Lyimo Tanzania said 'aid-for-trade' should be de-linked from the Doha negotiations. Linking the two could make it harder to get agreement on either, he said. In some ways, aid for trade means 'going back to square one' for Tanzania. The country some years ago made the decision to focus on trade preferences over aid, because aid was not working as a development tool * but preferences programs have not worked either.
El Salvador is looking for flexible measures in the Doha Round that will allow developing countries to adjust gradually to globalization, said Joanna Hill, director for trade policy for El Salvador's Ministry of Economy. The WTO aid for trade initiative is important to providing this adjustment. She suggested that developing countries need to take the lead. 'Traditional