Trade is a long-term basis for international co-operation.  Whereas aid is mostly short term, particularly for individual projects or limited to the donors priorities, the other partner in a trading relationship is likely to represent an ongoing market for goods or services. So when a developing country has the capacity to engage in trade with another country, there is a strong likelihood that that trade will blossom into an ongoing trading partnership. This will allow a firm basis for a flow of cash or goods into the developing country, largely independently of whether the developed country is doing well or badly economically at a given moment. This can be contrasted to the flow of aid. It tends to be less predictable, both because it is manipulated for political reasons and also because it can be quite ephemeral and so, if the developed country goes through a bad economic time, the aid budget makes an easy target for a reduction in spending as is shown by the arguments in the United States where the USAID Administrator Shah "We estimate, and I believe these are very conservative estimates, that H.R. 1[bill passed by republicans in the house cutting foreign spending] would lead to 70,000 kids dying,"1.European trade with Africa may have decreased, but China’s demand for oil and raw materials is blossoming, and Africa is becoming a major supplier 2.  1 Rogin, Josh, 'Shah: GOP budget would kill 70,000 children', foreignpolicy.com, 31 March 2011, Retrieved 1 September 2011 from Foreign Policy  2 Moyo, D. (2009, March 21). Why Foreign Aid is Hurting Africa. Retrieved July 21, 2011, from The Wall Street Journal: