WT/MIN(17)/ST/46  
 
13 December 2017  
(17-6931) Page: 1/2 
Ministerial Conference  
Eleventh Session  
Buenos Aires, 10 -13 December 2017  Original: English  
 
STATEMENT BY MRS. ANABEL GONZALEZ  
SENIOR DIRECTOR  
WORLD BANK 
(Speaking as an Observer)  
Thank you Chair.  I would like to provide a brief overview for Ministers of the assistance provided 
by the World Bank Group in support for the multilateral trading system and in helping developing 
countries make the most of trade and investment opportunities.  
 
Our engagem ent in the WTO and in trade and investment governance remains as broad and deep 
as ever. We work closely with WTO Members and with the WTO Secretariat on almost every issue 
on the organization’s radar screen. At the country level, we work every day with ma ny of you and 
your officials to help implement WTO agreements and deliver wider reforms aimed at 
strengthening trade and competitiveness and the resilience of firms, communities and workers.  
 
Allow me today to emphasize five important dimensions of our wo rk with WTO members.  
 
First, Aid for Trade: Twelve years into the A4T Initiative, the Bank’s Aid for Trade portfolio 
continues to grow steadily, with current commitments of more than $13 billion, making us the 
largest multilateral player in Aid for Trade. Our A4T contribution is also importantly analytical in 
character. In joint work with the WTO, we will soon be sharing the results of a study exploring the 
various channels through which trade can reduce poverty. Looking ahead to the 2019 Global Aid 
for Tra de Review, we are joining forces with the WTO Secretariat in an ambitious attempt at 
grounding more granular discussions of trade and gender in rigorous empirics.  
 
Second, Trade Facilitation: We continue to work closely with many WTO members on 
implementa tion of the landmark Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). Beyond its innovative 
implementation modalities aligned to the trade -related technical assistance (TRTA) needs of 
developing countries, the TFA offers clear -cut evidence of the TRTA multiplier effect s that can be 
reaped when negotiations target core development priorities. Since the launch of TFA negotiations 
in 2004, WBG support for trade facilitation initiatives – both infrastructural hardware and 
regulatory and institutional software, experienced a n eighteen -fold increase. It now amounts to 
more than $7 billion. Looking ahead, we believe that important Aid for Trade and rule -design 
lessons can be drawn from the TFA experience.  
 
Third, Least Developed Countries remain a strong feature of our work in the WTO. Our Aid for 
Trade commitments directed towards LDCs continued to exceed $1 billion last year. The WBG is a 
key partner in the Enhanced Integrated Framework, and strengthening the capacity of the world’s 
most vulnerable actors in trade - including its governance, where the voice of LDCs needs to carry 
more forcefully  - remains central to the WBGs engagement and to the realization of our twin 
objectives of eliminating mass poverty and promoting shared prosperity.  
 
Fourth, contributing to the WTO’s d eliberative function by sharing our expertise in all areas where 
WTO members are debating the future of trade and investment governance. This spans areas such 
as digital trade, micro -, small - and medium -sized enterprises as well as services and investment 
facilitation. All are areas where the WBG possesses unique insights anchored in our extensive WT/MIN(17)/ST/46  
 
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  ground presence in client countries. Such a presence allows us to distil lessons learned from 
ongoing reforms and identify good practices liable for global scalin g. 
 
Fifth, making trade more inclusive . The period since MC 10 has witnessed rising sensitivity 
worldwide towards disruptive change, whether induced by technological, climate or other sources, 
and rising awareness of the role that trade and investment can p lay both in the spread and 
mitigation of change. Our work with WTO members both globally and at the national level aims at 
ensuring that the benefits of trade and investment are shared as broadly as possible and that 
sound flanking policies are in place to  help societies both to take advantage of the opportunities 
arising from trade and investment liberalization and to cushion the adverse distributional 
downsides that change can bring in its wake.     
 
The above are but a few of the areas where we engage with the WTO  community. Others include 
our work with the WTO in the G20  context ; our membership in the Standards and Trade 
Development Facility and other partnerships with the WTO; our support for countries in services, 
agriculture, standards, global value  chains, and more.  
 
In closing, let me comment briefly on the state of play in the WTO and express the WBG’s full and 
unwavering support to your countries and to the multilateral trading system itself, a critically 
important global public good  at a patent ly critical juncture . It is of course for WTO Members to 
decide the way forward. As a former Minister of Trade I know very well the difficult circumstances 
you and the system currently confront. The words I pronoun ced in my opening remarks at MC 10 in 
Nairo bi continue to resonate with equal, if not greater, vigour today  in light of developments over 
the past two years : an open global economy underpinned by a strong, dynamic and inclusive 
multilateral trading system is essential for world prosperity, peace an d stability.  
 
Time and again we have seen how trade and investment are important levers for achieving the 
SDGs. In meeting the challenges of today and adapting the multilateral trading system to those of 
tomorrow, WTO members can count on the continued fu ll support of the World Bank Group  and its 
dedicated teams of professionals . Making trade work for all is not just a mantra, it is what drives 
all we do at your service and at that of the multilateral trading order.    
 
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