WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  RESTRICTED 
WT/COMTD/AFT/M/20 
16 September 2011 
 (11-4461) 
Committee on Trade and Development 
Twentieth Session on Aid for Trade  
 
 
 
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 12 APRIL 2011 
 
Chairman:  H.E. Mr. Shree B.C. Servansing (Mauritius)1 
  
A.  A
DOPTION OF THE AGENDA  ........................................................................................................ 1  
B.  STATEMENT BY THE DIRECTOR -GENERAL  ................................................................................. 1  
C.  PROGRESS IN IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 2010-2011  AID-FOR-TRADE WORK 
PROGRAMME  .............................................................................................................................. . 5 
1.  Resource mobilization ......................................................................................................... ..... 5 
2.  Mainstreaming ................................................................................................................. ......... 8 
3.  Implementation ................................................................................................................ ......... 9 
4.  Monitoring and Evaluation. ................................................................................................... 11 
5.  Private Sector ................................................................................................................ .......... 13 
D.  OTHER  BUSINESS  ...................................................................................................................... 13  
 
 
A. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA  
1. The Chairman said that the agenda for the meeting was contained in document 
WTO/AIR/3727.  He informed that the United Nations Industrial Development Organization 
(UNIDO) had requested to present its 2010 edition of the Trade Capacity Building Resource Guide at 
a later stage and proposed that this s ub-item be deleted from the agenda.   
2. The Agenda, as amended, was adopted. 
B. STATEMENT BY THE DIRECTOR -GENERAL  
3. The Director-General gave an overview of the draft agenda2 for the Third Global Review 
(TGR) of Aid for Trade (AfT), and provided an upda te on the status of preparations for the two-day 
meeting.  He said the agenda reflected the inputs,  interests and concerns provided by Members during 
extensive consultations that had taken place since the December 2010 Committee on Trade and 
Development (CTD)-AfT meeting.  Any additional issues that Members would have liked to have 
                                                      
1 H.E. Mr. Shree B.C. Servansing (Mauritius) chaire d the meeting at the request of the CTD Chair, 
H.E. Dr. Anthony Mothae Maruping (Lesotho). 
2 The draft outline of the agenda was circulated as a room document for the CTD-AfT meeting and 
subsequently posted on the WTO AfT website. WT/COMTD/AFT/M/20 
Page 2 
 
 
  seen included on the agenda could, he said, be take n up in the future, for example, in the 2012-2013 
AfT work programme.   
4. He commended Members for their level of e ngagement in the Monitoring and Evaluation 
(M&E) exercise and for their excellent response to the joint OECD-WTO call for case stories, which 
had exceeded expectations.  Case stories were s till being received and the exercise had also been 
extended to the private sector.  The information coll ected needed to be explored to its full potential 
and would be a rich resource with which to info rm the TGR and the subsequent 2012-2013 AfT work 
programme.  Of particular note with regard to  those case stories submitted by developing and 
Least-Developed Countries (LDCs) was the fact that the information had been provided by the 
respondents themselves and not by third parties.  Given the large number of submissions, he said it 
was clear that not all the case stories could be profil ed at the TGR.  The main task at the Review 
meeting would therefore be to capture political atten tion to ensure that the AfT Initiative, collectively 
launched in 2005, would be extended.  Althou gh the case stories would help inform the TGR 
discussion by demonstrating that Aid for Trade was showing results, key political messages still 
needed to be distilled.  The 2011 joint WTO/OE CD Aid for Trade at a Glance publication would 
assist in this regard by including an analysis of  the case stories and questionnaires.  In addition, 
Members would be provided with an opportunity to  discuss the case stories at a dedicated workshop 
that had been organized on 23 June.  In his view , the workshop would not exhaust all the possibilities 
offered by the rich resource of information gathered  from the case stories;  it would also inform the 
2012-2013 AfT work programme as well as outreach and tr aining activities with Members.  As far as 
the further development of the 2012-2013 AfT work programme was concerned, he said he would be 
keen to see in the work programme issues such as trade finance, investment, services and standards.  
He also encouraged Members and Observers to use the information gathered from the case stories and 
from the workshop in their own analyses and events.   
5. Turning to the TGR which would take place on 18 and 19 July, he said that the event would 
provide an opportunity to survey what had been achieved since the launch of the AfT Initiative in 
2005 and the Second Global Review held in 2009.  He recalled that past Global Reviews had 
highlighted the additional finance mobilized by dono rs and the action on mainst reaming by partners.  
What was needed now was to showcase what AfT was achieving on the ground.  He believed that the 
focus and central theme of the TGR should therefor e be on showing results.  The evaluation of AfT 
- including an assessment of impact - was an evol ving discipline and he was aware that a definitive 
answer to Members' concerns about the so-called at tribution gap might not be possible at the TGR.  
However, he saw the TGR as an opportunity for Me mbers to share their experience and knowledge, to 
engage in a full and frank discussion to capita lize actions and assist in filling those gaps,  and, in 
particular, to maintain the impressive momentum that  had been generated thus far in the Initiative.  
Referring to the M&E of Aid for Trade, he said that  rather than relying on only one method perhaps 
what should be done was to look across - and extract what was needed from - a broad range of approaches, including ground-breaking innovative work.  Such an approach would be in keeping with 
the collaborative spirit which underpinned the AfT Initia tive.  If done well, M&E could be a valuable 
tool for continuous improvement and could make the political case for additional, sustainable, 
predictable and effective AfT. 
6. He then referred to the specific sessions in cluded in the TGR agenda which took account of 
his discussions with the World Bank regarding priv ate sector outreach, and addressed the AfT-related 
issues (e.g., trade facilitation and regional integra tion) raised in the G-20 Seoul Summit Leaders' 
Declaration
3.   His efforts to build the bridge with the G-20 process had resulted, notably, by the 
inclusion of AfT in the G-20 Multi-Year Acti on Plan on Development and the G-20 Leaders' 
commitment to at least maintain beyond 2011 Af T levels that would reflect the average spending 
between 2006-2008.  He called this the "Aid for Tr ade insurance policy" and said he would continue 
                                                      
3 http://www.g20.org/Documents2010/ 11/seoulsummit_declaration.pdf .  WT/COMTD/AFT/M/20 
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  to develop the link between the AfT Initiative and the G-20 process, which he believed was important 
to ensure the continued political relevance of the Initiative, including at the upcoming Spring 
meetings of the World Bank and the International M onetary Fund and at other relevant events.  He 
asked Members to also make the continuing case fo r AfT by participating actively at the TGR. 
7. The representative of Benin, on behalf of th e African Group, said that the African Group 
would endorse the comments which would be made by  Bangladesh on behalf of the LDCs, but wished 
separately, to note the particular efforts that had been made to ensure  full transparency and 
inclusiveness in the management of the work lead ing up to the TGR.  Referring to the follow-up 
mechanism for the AfT Initiative and to the prepara tions for the TGR, the African Group noted with 
appreciation the actions undertaken bot h in Geneva and regionally, partic ularly in partner countries, to 
effectively and efficiently carry out the 2010-201 1 AfT Work Programme.  Although welcoming the 
work that had been achieved, the African Group wi shed to nevertheless stress the need to redouble 
efforts to enable partner countries to cover th e areas which they believed could enjoy increased 
attention.  This work involved, for example, en suring that country and donor coverage could be 
broadened and deepened and looking at how the quality of actions and pa rtnerships could be 
improved.  It was also up to LDCs to build fu rther bridges between AfT and existing mechanisms 
such as the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF).  Particularly welcome to the African Group were 
the on-going consultations being carried out to ga ther the views of all stakeholders as well as the 
assistance provided by the Secretariat throughout the preparatory stages for the TGR, including, for 
example, with respect to the M&E exercise and joint WTO/OECD AfT questionnaire.  The 
information and experiences provided in the re sponses to the AfT questionnaire and case story 
exercise should be synthesized and analysed in an  appropriate manner with a view to sharing best 
practices, pin-pointing problems, le arning relevant lessons and, a bove all, coming up with possible 
solutions to problems.   
8. Referring to the schedule of specific activities fo r LDCs, he said that when planning the 
future AfT work it would be useful to bear in  mind, for example, the plans for the LDC-IV 
Conference to be held in Istanbul to see how the AfT work could be dovetailed with the work being 
undertaken by the UN, as well as what role AfT could play with respect to the Brussels Plan of Action 
for LDCs with a view to achieving the Millennium Development Goals.  The AfT activities were also 
very much part of the Doha Development Agenda  (DDA) which should be an essential guiding pillar 
of the AfT work.  Without prejudice to the deve lopments and results of the DDA negotiations, the 
African Group wished to reiterate the need to ensu re that the TGR would have tangible results and 
would not simply be a straightforward stocktaki ng exercise.  The LDCs and the African Group would 
do their utmost to ensure that the TGR was an effective tool for development. 
9. The representative of Bangladesh, on behalf of the LDCs, noted the progress made in the 
implementation of the 2010-2011 AfT Work Progra mme and that AfT was an important building 
block for developing countries' and LDCs' tr ade capacity building, skill development and 
enhancement of productive capacity.  It was theref ore crucial that AfT was adequately resourced, 
implemented and monitored.  The AfT programme n eeded to be dovetailed with the outcome of the 
upcoming LDC-IV Conference.  A cornerstone of  the AfT Initiative was resource mobilization and 
the LDC Group appreciated the sustained efforts by various governments, international organizations 
and international financial institu tions in mobilizing resources for enhancing the trade capacity of 
developing countries and LDCs.  This momentum need ed to be sustained in order to ensure optimal 
impact of aid on trade capacity building in LDCs.  Regular monitoring by the Organization for 
Economic Co-operation and Devel opment (OECD) of the aid flows from donor countries and the 
fulfilment of their expressed comm itment to international develo pment cooperation was appreciated 
and the LDCs had taken note of the reported increas e in aid flows in 2010 of 6.5 per cent over 2009.  
The LDCs wished, however, to express concern of  the continued failure of some OECD/DAC 
countries in meeting the targets they had set.  Th e LDCs were also concerned over the diminishing 
rate of aid flows from donors projected from 2011 to 2013 and believed that the OECD and DAC WT/COMTD/AFT/M/20 
Page 4 
 
 
  members should continue to review and strengthe n their overall development assistance policies 
through enhanced political commitment and broad-b ased global partnership approaches.  In this 
regard, he said that the High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness4 would create a platform for further 
dialogue between all stakeholders, including OECD/DAC members.   
10. The mainstreaming of AfT into initiatives undert aken at national, regional and multilateral 
levels was also an important tool for effective resource utilization and corporate policy planning and 
implementation.  In this respect, the LDC Group welc omed the continued work of integrating an AfT 
analysis into the Trade Policy Review (TPR) pr ocess and would continue to engage in the TPR 
exercise to gauge the progress being made, in par ticular as far as LDCs were concerned.  The LDC 
Group reiterated the need for sustained effort s on mobilizing additional resources under the AfT 
programme in order to deliver on trade capacity building needs identified under the Diagnostic Trade 
Integration Studies (DTIS), and looked forward to the completion of the EIF Five Year Strategy Plan 
and the finalization of the EIF M&E framework in the course of 2011.   
11. Also of importance to the LDC Group was the im plementation of specific deliverables in the 
AfT Initiative and the Group wished to underscore th e need for further engagement by relevant 
Members, Organizations and financial institutions in this regard.  The Group welcomed the World 
Bank's work on trade facilitation (TF) and the ser ies of activities it had organized - including the 
recent Expert Group Meeting on Trade Facilitation - which had enabled LDCs to deepen their 
understanding of the issues at stake in the TF negotiations.  The Group encouraged the Bank to 
continue its work on this issue and its consider ation for specific technical assistance support in line 
with the provisions of the proposed agreement on trade facilitation.   
12. Turning to M&E, which was critical in assessing the effectiveness of AfT, he said that the 
LDC Group believed that, in order to have a co mprehensive overview and understanding of the 
effectiveness of AfT, M&E should be undertaken fr om the perspective of both cooperating partners 
and recipients.  In this context, the Group attach ed importance to the focus on outcomes and impacts 
of AfT as envisaged for the TGR.  While there was merit in the case story approach, there was also a 
need for a comprehensive and realistic scenario em erging from the entire review process.  The LDC 
Group therefore encouraged all Members and other stakeholders to actively respond to the call for 
case stories and to complete the AfT questionnaires a nd urged the Secretariat to provide the necessary 
assistance to Members in this regard.  Regarding the OECD Experts Workshop on the Implementation 
of AfT held on 28 March 2011, he said that the Wo rkshop had featured some useful panel discussions 
and presentations the LDC Group hoped that the id eas and insights gathered during the workshop 
would be actively factored into OECD policy maki ng in relation to AfT implementation.  The Group 
urged the OECD to facilitate the participation of LDC representatives in such workshops in order to 
broaden the scope of discussion and promote inclusive viewpoints. 
13. The representative of Colombia said his delegati on appreciated the efforts that had been taken 
to vitalize the M&E exercise to ensure that AfT could be increasingly effective and could lead to 
tangible impact in developing countries' growth an d development.  With respect to channelling the 
information gathered from the AfT case stories and qu estionnaires, Colombia suggested that it might 
be useful to include the information in a summa ry for the TGR so that the M&E work could be 
properly reflected and lessons could be drawn on how to improve AfT.  
14. The representative of the United States thanked the Secretariat for the efforts and work in 
regard to the preparation of the TGR.  Aid for Trade was an important component of overall 
assistance - and had been an important component of US assistance for decades - and the US was 
committed to the success of the AfT Initiative and to the TGR. 
                                                      
4 Fourth High-Level Forum on Ai d Effectiveness, Busan, Korea,  29 November-1 December 2011.  WT/COMTD/AFT/M/20 
 Page 5 
 
 
  15. The representative of China thanked the Secretar iat for the excellent work that had been 
undertaken with regard to the AfT Initiative.  Emph asizing the important role that AfT played in the 
development of developing count ries, he echoed the comments by Benin and by Bangladesh 
regarding the TGR and the fact that the Review should not merely be a stocktaking exercise but 
should offer tangible results.  China also wished to reiterate the sugges tions made on previous 
occasions on how the AfT Initiative could be taken fo rward over the next two years.  China would 
continue its active role in AfT bilaterally (fo r example, through the China-Africa Forum), 
plurilaterally and multilaterally and looked fo rward to participating in the TGR.   
16. Referring to the comments made by Benin on be half of the African Group concerning the call 
for more substantive dialogue between donors and bene ficiaries, the Director-General said that this 
broad question was being dealt with on a daily basis on the ground.  It was also clear that the TGR, by 
definition, would offer an opportunity - both collec tively and at a high level - to engage in such 
dialogue on a thematic basis.  As regards the EIF, he  recalled that this was part of AfT specifically for 
LDCs and that the EIF and AfT were therefore inte r-linked.  In response to Colombia's comment on 
the AfT case stories, he confirmed that the rich source of material would be analysed and summarized 
so as to draw practical lessons from the information that had been provided.   Regarding the schedule 
of LDC-specific activities, in addition to the LDC-IV  Conference, he informed that a number of other 
events had been scheduled including one focused  on the LDCs and the EIF which would look at 
market access issues, and another at which th e EIF itself would be discussed with key donor and 
beneficiary partners to allow for a stocktaking of how to move the EIF forward.  Other LDC-specific 
events were being organized by the International Trade Centre (ITC) on tourism services, and by the 
World Bank on trade facilitation.  As for the comments relating to the DDA, he said that he would be 
discussing the issue the following day with the G-90.  
17. Turning to the point made by Bangladesh on the necessity for a follow-up on the outcome of 
the TGR, he confirmed that the outcome - and outp ut - of the Review would be an essential element 
on which to frame the 2012-2013 AfT work progra mme.  Whether about resource mobilization or 
about mainstreaming, he said that more attention and more work could be done in the follow-up on 
impact evaluation which was the specific focus of th e TGR.  Impact evaluation would therefore be an 
important element in the way the next stage of the AfT Initiative was developed.  
C. PROGRESS IN IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 2010-2011  AID-FOR-TRADE WORK PROGRAMME  
1. Resource mobilization 
18. The representative of the OECD provided an overview of the recently-released 2009 AfT 
flows which would be reported fully in the jo int OECD/WTO Aid for Trade at a Glance 2011 
publication to be officially released at the TGR.  Aid-for-Trade flows had continued to increase since 
2008 - albeit at a declining rate due to the current  economic climate - and he noted that commitments 
in 2009 had reached US$41.1 billion, a 60 per cent increase over the baseline period of 2002-2005.  
Economic infrastructure - and more specifically th e banking and financial sector (as a result of the 
economic crisis) and agriculture (as a result of the food crisis) - and building productive capacity 
remained the top categories as far as AfT commitments were concerned.  In terms of disbursements, 
the building productive capacity sect or, for the first time, had become the largest category.  
Multilateral donors provided 90 per cent of Other Offi cial Flows (OOFs) which had doubled since 
2008 with the World Bank accounting for approximately two-thirds of the increase with a 
contribution of US$24 billion in 2009 (up from US$6 billion in 2007).  Africa, for the first time, 
became the largest recipient of AfT in 2009 receivi ng a total of US$16.5 billi on.  Asia was the second 
largest recipient with the decline being explained by  reduced levels of support to India and Iraq.  The 
top 20 recipients - with Viet Nam overtaking Indi a to become the largest recipient - received 50 per 
cent of AfT with a more or less equal distribution between Asia and Africa.  Low-income countries 
accounted for nearly 49 per cent of the total AfT flows which had increased from US$15.5 billion in WT/COMTD/AFT/M/20 
Page 6 
 
 
  2008 to US$19.5 billion in 2009.  The top five don ors (World Bank, Japan, US, EU, and Germany) 
provided 63 per cent of the AfT flows and loans and grants had been relatively consistent since the 
baseline period with loans over total AfT ratio va rying from 46 to 52 per cent and grants increasing by 
67 per cent. 
19. The representative of Benin, on behalf of the African Group, said that the OECD's 
explanation of the AfT flows had covered the c oncern expressed in the Group's work programme and 
consultations with stakeholders w ith regard to ensuring better, additional and sustainable AfT.  The 
African Group thanked all donors for their efforts,  especially since Africa had been the major 
beneficiary of AfT in 2009 and, recalling the Sec ond Global Review, said that this momentum needed 
to be continued.  Work priorities should now focus on assessing the real impact of AfT on 
beneficiaries and on the question of follow-up on trade flows.  The joint OECD/WTO Aid for Trade at a Glance 2011 publication, as well as annual publi cations by other partners providing AfT, would 
allow for a further fine-tuning of this analysis and assessment.  The distinction between loans and 
grants should be taken into account in any analys is or assessment and the African Group would look 
in more detail at, and share any views on, the figu res provided by the OECD.  He suggested that for 
the next Global Review figures be distributed in a dvance to allow for a more positive and interactive 
discussion. 
20. The representative of Uganda requested clarif ication and a detailed breakdown of the AfT 
flows to Africa. 
21. The representative of the European Uni on (EU) expressed support for the OECD's 
compilation of yearly AfT data and said that the monitoring of AfT flows was important not only for 
transparency and visibility of efforts, but also fo r maintaining momentum of the AfT Initiative.  The 
EU also agreed that information on AfT flows should be made more accessible and, in this respect, 
would support the OECD's work in making the Creditor Reporting System database more user 
friendly.  In terms of the reporting of AfT flows, it was important that donors continue - or start - to 
use the trade development marker.  The EU, for exam ple, monitored on a yearly basis progress of the 
implementation of the EU AfT Strategy adopted in  2007 and its Aid for Trade Monitoring Report for 
2011 was shortly to be released.   
22. The Monitoring Report, which dealt with 2009 data, indicated good results in terms of 
financial resources mobilized for the AfT Initiative, with combined EU AfT, including from member 
States, shown as having reached €10.5 billion in 2009 compared to €6.5 billion in 2006 (i.e.  the all-time high registered in 2008 had been maintained).   Within the broader AfT category, a substantial 
increase had been reported for EU trade-related assistance, for which the collective amount committed 
was nearly €3 billion.  This was €1 billion above th e Hong Kong target to spend €2 billion per year on 
trade-related assistance as from 2010.  In line with th e OECD's global picture, the largest share of EU 
and member States' AfT went to Africa (40 per cent of  the total, representing €4.1 billion). It was also 
interesting to note that a large number of the case stories received in the run-up to the TGR had 
referred to EU-funded programmes.  The EU's co mmitment to AfT therefore continued to be 
underpinned by very high resources and was in line with the G-20 Leaders' engagement.   
23. The representative of the United Nations Co mmittee on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) 
thanked the Secretariat for its continued effort s in support of the AfT Initiative.  UNCTAD had 
supported the AfT Initiative since its conception in 2 006, by participating in various AfT meetings 
organized by the WTO and, more recently, by submitting four case stories for the TGR.5  UNCTAD 
                                                      
5 "Strategies and Preparedness for Trade and Globalization";  "International Partnership for Sustainable 
Development: Promoting Production and Trade of Organic Agricultural Products";  "Capacity Building in 
Developing Countries and Least-Developed Countries to  Support their Effective Participation in the WTO  WT/COMTD/AFT/M/20 
 Page 7 
 
 
  had also provided assistance with respect to the ca se stories presented by Angola (supported through 
the AfT UNCTAD Train-for-Trade programme), Costa Rica (support to the Ministry of Foreign Trade 
(COMEX)), Lesotho and Malawi (support as part of the Integrated Framework project), and Montserrat (support through the EC-funded proj ect for ASYCUDA world).  UNCTAD's AfT 
cooperation was cross-cutting involving several  UNCTAD Units, and many of its activities had a 
South-South perspective.  Numerous stakeholde rs - including donors, international development 
agencies, and private consultants - were acting as implementing agencies and recipient countries and 
organizations were involved in different phases a nd activities of the AfT Initiative.  UNCTAD would 
prepare AfT performance reviews of the developmenta l impact of AfT activities in terms of building 
supply capacities,  infrastructure and contributing to an increase in exports and, at the same time, 
would explore financial and cooperation activities with other agencies. 
24. In response to Benin and Uganda, the representa tive of the OECD indicated that due to the 
checking process involved in tracking AfT flows it w as not possible to present the figures any earlier.  
Regarding a breakdown of numbers, project-level in formation - by region, category and country - was 
available on the OECD website.  This  information would be included in the Aid for Trade at a Glance 
publication being prepared for the TGR.  Informa tion on where AfT flows were channelled could also 
be found under the project-level data on the website. 
25. The representative of Canada recalled the CAN $40 million that had been earmarked as part of 
Canada's multilateral 2009-2014 AfT initiative to in crease jobs and economic opportunities in the 
Americas and Africa through enhanced participati on in the global economy.  About one-quarter of 
this investment would be devoted to making subs tantive improvements to the livelihoods of women 
traders, entrepreneurs and small-scale farmers.  Also  part of Canada's multilateral trade initiative were 
the recent transfers of CAN$2 million to the Sta ndards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) and 
CAN$1 million to the DDA Global Trust Fund.  Canada welcomed the focus on AfT impacts at the 
TGR as well as a performance-results based framework whic h, he said, was essential to all partners in 
order to demonstrate results. 
26. The representative of the African Developm ent Bank (AfDB) announced that a new 
2011-2012 Regional Integration Strategy  Paper (RISP) for Southern Afri ca had recently been agreed 
by its Board which would focus on two strategy pi llars, namely building regional infrastructure and 
capacity building (including trade facilitation, re gional public goods, micro-economic convergence, 
and knowledge management and ne tworking).  The development of regional corridors was the 
overriding approach for the Southern African RI SP in sustaining economic growth and social 
development.  RISPs covering Central, South, an d North Africa had been, or were also being, 
developed. With regard to regional infrastruct ure, he said the Bank was focussing on transport 
(mainly roads and railways), power generation, hydr o-electricity and renewable resources of energy, 
and information communication technology with an emphasis on the corridor approach.  For capacity 
building, the focus would be on strengthening capacity at legal, regulatory and institutional levels as 
well as on trade facilitation. 
27. The representative of the Inter-American Deve lopment Bank (IaDB) gave an overview of 
decisions taken at the Bank's Annual Meeting.  These included in relation to the creation of a 
spending target of 50 per cent for poverty and ineq uality reduction, 35 per cent for climate change, 
15 per cent for global and regional integration (i.e. all AfT-related issues), and 35 per cent for small 
and vulnerable economies.  This meant that th e IaDB would henceforth allocate US$1.8 billion 
annually to AfT-type spending in Latin America a nd the Caribbean (LAC).  He recalled that the 
IaDB's integration strategy advocated simultaneous  investment in software (trade and regulatory 
frameworks) and hardware (investme nts infrastructure) issues and noted that, although LAC countries 
                                                                                                                                                                     
Negotiations Process on Trade Facilitation";  and "T echnical Assistance through the Bio-Trade Initiative 
Programme".  See www.aid4trade.org . WT/COMTD/AFT/M/20 
Page 8 
 
 
  were extremely active in trade and foreign-inv estment reforms resulting in a myriad of trade 
negotiations and agreements, these advances (i.e. on the software side) had not been coupled by 
investment in economic infrastructure (i.e. hardware ).  The IaDB believed that the LAC region needed 
more vigorous and focus-functioning co-operation to promote economic grow th and poverty reduction 
through both financial and non-financial instrument s.  Important to the software was not only trade 
and investment facilitation but also trade promoti on and implementation of trade agreements as well 
as functional cooperation (i.e. support provided to co untries whose collective action, at the regional 
level, may add value to national interventions).   
28. He then noted examples of the types of projects and interventions on which funding was 
focused (e.g. road infrastructure, border crossings, trade facilitation), and some of the results of the 
programmes (i.e. transit times on the border betwee n El Salvador and Hondu ras had been reduced 
from 80 to six minutes as a result of the Internati onal Transit of Merchandise initiative (TIM)).  The 
IaDB hoped to replicate these interventions and result s in the rest of Central America and, gradually, 
in the Caribbean, and already had the support as fa r as Central America was concerned to implement 
similar changes at all border crossings. 
2. Mainstreaming 
29. The representative of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) 
provided an update of its AfT work, including in  Central Asia regarding the SPECA Initiative and 
follow-up to the Baku Ministerial Conference.6  In this context, she announced several upcoming 
meetings related to AfT.  These included a joint me eting on trade with the Parliamentary Assembly of 
the Mediterranean (4 and 5 May), and a session of the UNECE Committee on Trade on AfT and the 
Southern Caucasus and a meeting on Western CIS (14 and 15 June).7  The latter would include 
discussions on the UNDP AfT Assessments for Moldova , Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia and Belarus as 
well as a dedicated discussion on trade issues in Be larus with a presentation of UNECE's in-depth 
study on regulatory and trade barriers in Belarus.  With regard to the SPECA Initiative, she recalled 
that the Baku Ministerial Declaration, which was part of the implementation of the SPECA AfT 
Roadmap, had called for the establishment of a tr ipartite mechanism in which countries, donors and 
implementing agencies would participate.  UNECE hoped to organize a meeting of this follow-up mechanism before the TGR. 
30. The representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) provided an 
update on a UNDP publication on trade mainstreami ng in national development strategies which 
would enhance understanding of the dynamics of trad e mainstreaming in developing countries.  He 
underlined the importance of mainstreaming trad e in national development and poverty reduction 
strategies not only for the formulation and implementation of development-centred trade policies but also for developing countries to engage effectivel y with donors in order to mobilize additional 
resources.  The publication aimed to look more clos ely at the context in which trade mainstreaming 
occurred and to identify the common elements of success in mainstreaming trade in national 
development strategies as well as specific challenge s with a view to enhancing understanding of the 
subject.  Previous work undertaken by UNDP
8 had revealed evidence of trade mainstreaming in 
Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) a nd replies to the OECD/WTO AfT self-assessment 
questionnaires had provided information on progress rega rding trade mainstreaming.  In addition, 14 
                                                      
6 Information on the SPECA AfT Initiative can be found on the UNECE website at 
http://live.unece.org/speca/Welcome.html . 
7 For more information see http://www.unece.org . 
8 Trade for Poverty Reduction.  The Role of Trade Policy in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, UNDP 
2008;  Aid for Trade and Human Development:  A Guide to Conducting Aid for Trade Needs Assessment 
Exercises, UNDP 2009 ( http://undp.ro/publications/trademigration/ ).    WT/COMTD/AFT/M/20 
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  case studies produced during the period September 2010-March 20119 and representing a broad 
geographical coverage of countries,  had explored how trade mainstreaming took place at policy level, 
institutional processes, and donor-partner relations hips. The exercise aimed at systematically 
gathering information on how countri es had approached the challenge of trade mainstreaming to shed 
further light on policies for trade development, in stitutional processes, and the extent of support from 
external partners to achieve trade objectives.  As  part of the process, UNDP had developed a detailed 
questionnaire in consultation with partners, and key personnel at va rious levels of national trade 
governance structures as well as tho se from civil society, the privat e sector and the donor community 
had been interviewed.  The country case studies were  currently being reviewed to outline lessons 
learnt, challenges and recommendations for improv ing the substantive basis and process of trade 
mainstreaming.  The results of this review would be consolidated in a repor t to be made available 
during TGR. 
31. The representative of Azerbaijan referred to the SPECA AfT Ministerial Conference that took 
place in Azerbaijan in December 2010.  The meet ing, which had been organized by the UNECE, 
WTO, UNCTAD, UNDP, and others agencies, had been a strategic element to ensure future 
sustainable socio-economic development in develo ping countries.  Azerbaijan looked forward to a 
follow-up of the Ministerial Conference, including the preparation of relevant documentation which 
could be presented to agencies to demonstrate progr ess achieved thus far in the SPECA Initiative.  He 
also announced that a WTO Reference Centre had recently been set up in Azerbaijan which would 
serve as an important tool for raising awareness of the Initiative. 
3. Implementation 
32. The representative of the World Bank provided a brief overview of what the Bank was doing 
with the private sector to complement the AfT case st ory exercise.  Information gathered thus far from 
private businesses indicated that trade was booming and that a large amount of foreign direct 
investment was going to developing countries in the form of trade capacity building.  Linkages had 
also been made, for example, to domestic supplie rs in supply chains.  The Bank would prepare a 
paper synthesizing the results of this exercise whic h would serve as an instrument to highlight what 
the private sector was doing to make trade happen wh ich, ultimately, was what AfT was all about in 
terms of its objectives.  As mentioned by the Dir ector-General, a forward-l ooking part of the AfT 
agenda was to work more with the private sector  and develop partnerships  through which constraints 
that firms were confronting in terms of making inv estments in particular activities (e.g. supply chains) 
could be identified and addressed.  One example of  such a partnership concerned trade facilitation 
where the Global Express Association had provided acces s to their risk management software which 
could then be provided to any customs agency in the world interested in using that same type of 
risk-management tool.  Another area in which the Bank was working with the private sector linked 
closely to the objective of AfT M&E.  Private busin esses would, for example, be able to provide the 
best information on what was, or was not, happen ing on the ground.  An example would be to work 
with transportation providers on logistics to look, for example, at the length of time consignments 
spent waiting to be released even though all formalit ies had been cleared.  This type of information 
would allow for a better assessment of the impact of some of the Bank's trade facilitation related 
projects. 
33. She then reported on the recently-held Expert Gr oup Meeting on Trade Facilitation that the 
Bank had organized in response to the G-20 Leaders'  call for the multilateral development banks to 
scale-up assistance in the area of trade facilitation.10  Representatives at the meeting included from 
                                                      
9 Trade mainstreaming case studies were undertak en in the Central African Republic, Chile, the 
Republic of Congo, Guinea-Bissau, the People's Democr atic Republic of Laos, Lesotho, Mauritius, Moldova, 
Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uruguay, and, Yemen. 
10 See http://www.g20.org/Documents2010/ 11/seoulsummit_declaration.pdf .  WT/COMTD/AFT/M/20 
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  regional development banks, specialized agencies ac tive in the area of trade facilitation, and major 
bilateral donors that provided assistance in this  area.  Specific recommendations and proposals on 
how coordination, exchange of information, s ynergies and complementarities could be enhanced 
would be drawn up and initiatives where a collective e ffort by the G-20 could make a difference in the 
effective delivery of assistance in the area of trad e facilitation logistics would be identified.  Three 
areas for further development in cluded, for example, using web portals for knowledge-sharing 
(suggestions included a WCO web-based project and the Global Facilitation Partnership for 
Transportation and Trade (GFP));  developing pl atforms to support coordination at national and 
regional level, including on servi ces (as it related to trade facilitation) and non-tariff barriers (NTBs); 
and addressing human resource capacity constraint s by requesting G-20 Leaders to explore the 
mobilization of customs expertise in G-20 co untries (including South-South and triangular 
cooperation) to support implementation of trade f acilitation projects in developing countries.   
34. Concerning the Bank's work relating to AfT more  generally, she said that a draft Group-wide 
trade strategy had recently been completed and presen ted to the Bank's Board.  The Strategy was built 
on five pillars:  trade facilitation logistics, co mpetitiveness (focusing particularly on services), 
regional integration (addressing NT Bs and developing knowledge plat forms), agriculture and food 
security, and trade finance.11 
35. The representative of Mali raised concerns re garding the definition of AfT (with respect to 
grants and donations) and to AfT data.  He said that  the outcome with respect to AfT data would be 
different ifloans were not counted as AfT.  He belie ved that greater clarification was necessary in the 
reporting of AfT data to allow for an analysis of the information on the basis of which decisions could 
be taken with regard to the AfT process (i.e. wh ether the process needed to improved and where it 
should be re-enforced).  Mali was conscious of the effects the globa l economic crisis had had on AfT 
flows during the period 2009-2011 and called on the Wo rld Bank and other fina ncial institutions, if 
they were unable to provide reliabl e consolidated figures for 2010 a nd 2011, to at least give by the 
time of the TGR a projection of AfT flows.  Referring to the World Bank's Group-wide Trade 
Strategy, he asked whether the Bank' s role and subsequent interventi ons would be considered as AfT 
as defined under the 2005 Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration.   
36. The representative of Uganda indicated that hi s delegation had the same concerns as those 
raised by Mali.   
37. The representative of the EU provided further details on the soon-to-be-released EU Aid for 
Trade Monitoring Report 2011.  Based on the information provided in the responses to a 
questionnaire addressed to EU delegations' and memb er States' field offices in 90 countries, the 
Report had confirmed that the EU had devoted more effort to enhancing the capacity of AfT delivery 
with a particular emphasis on its impact on the gr ound.  The qualitative information had pointed to 
moderate improvement in some of the key trade ac tivities and had shown that, in about half of the 
cases, trade was now a regular topic in policy dialo gue with partner countries.  Field responses also 
reported effective national coordinate d platforms to develop and implement integrated trade strategies 
and indicated that a trade-needs assessment had been un dertaken in the last five years in roughly half 
of the partner countries.  There had also been moderate improvement in  the frequency of joint 
operations and harmonization between EU donors in the delivery of AfT with field offices reporting 
that some national trade strategies had included regional integration priorities.  While, overall, 
feedback had shown some progress, there remained scope for improvement, particularly with regard 
to national players working together with other stak eholders in order to sustain the AfT agenda and 
strengthen its impact, especially on the world's poorest.   In particular, the EU considered that there 
was a need to devote more attention to the capac ity of LDCs to formulate and implement trade 
                                                      
11 http://siteresources.worldbank.org/TRADE /Resources/WBGTradeStrategyJune1.pdf .  WT/COMTD/AFT/M/20 
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  development strategies.  In this respect, more a dvantage should be taken of the potential offered by 
the EIF. 
38. The representative of Rwanda expressed apprecia tion for the dedicated efforts taken by both 
the WTO and OECD Secretariats with regard to the implementation of the AfT Initiative.  His 
delegation also welcomed the support of the AfDB to  African countries in respect of Aid for Trade.  
This included, for example, the organization of a workshop in Kigali in October 2010, AfDB's work 
with regard to regional integration in Africa (par ticularly vis-à-vis regional corridors where Rwanda 
had joined with Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi an d the Democratic Republic of Congo), regional 
infrastructure (which was important for devel oping countries and landlocked countries such as 
Rwanda), as well as trade capacity building.  His delegation also wished to recognize the AfDB's 
engagement in supporting trade facilitation, both  with respect to negotiations and to the 
implementation of a future trade facilitation agr eement.  Rwanda looked forward to continued 
collaboration with the AfDB. 
39. Briefly addressing the comments regarding AfT definition, nomenclature and figures, the 
Director-General pointed out that AfT was a specific category of development aid aimed at trade 
capacity building for partner countries which had alr eady been defined so as to have good reporting.  
OECD had taken care of the nomenclature of AfT b ecause of its expertise in that field, and the 
definition of AfT had been the result of lengthy discussions at the start of the AfT Initiative.  It was 
crucial that the definition remained  stable so that comparisons could be made.  It was this stable 
nomenclature and definition, toge ther with reporting of figures, that led to increased official 
development assistance (ODA) going beyond trade capacity building.  With regard to loans and grants 
being counted as AfT, he said that, again, these were  set principles defined by the OECD's traditional 
nomenclature which consisted of taking loans, gr ants and donations and deciding whether they were 
concessional or not.12  On projections and forecasts, he said that the 2009 AfT figures provided by the 
OECD had been verified and certified and noted  that provisional figures for 2010 were already 
available on the OECD website.  The provisional information for 2010 indicated that figures were 
heading in the same direction as 2006-2009 although, at this stage, no growth  vis-à-vis commitments 
or disbursements was shown.   
4. Monitoring and Evaluation.   
40. The representative of the Secretariat provided an update on the 2010 and 2011 M&E exercise 
and preparations for the TGR.  With regard to the information gathered from the 269 AfT case stories 
submitted13, he said that a thematic analysis - including on trade facilitation and trade infrastructure - 
would form part of the 2011 Aid for Trade at a Glance publication.  Various geographic analyses 
would also be prepared, for example, by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (on the case stories 
submitted by and about African countries) and by pa rtners in the Asian and Latin American regions.  
The WTO would also prepare a compendium document giving a short description of each of the 269 
case stories.14  The aim was to look at the general themes  and issues arising fro m the case stories at 
the TGR and then follow-up in detail with nationa l and regional AfT activities which could be based 
on the rich source of information gathered.  A key stepping stone in that process would be the 
Workshop on Aid-for-Trade Case Stories to be held  on 23 June which would attempt to analyse the 
case story information from a geographical and thema tic perspective.  Regional AfT activities - such 
as the events being planned in Asia and Central Africa - could also focus on the case stories and 
provide a platform for the dissemination of informat ion and experiences.  A further avenue would be 
with regard to the WTO's own training activities since a number of case stories made specific 
reference to the implementation of WTO agreements  such as intellectual property.  Discussions were 
                                                      
12 Non-concessional AfT refers to AfT that has a grant element of less than 25 per cent.   
13 The individual case stories can be found on www.aid4trade.org . 
14 WT/COMTD/AFT/W/26 and Add.1. WT/COMTD/AFT/M/20 
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  also under way on whether, and how, the case st ories dealing with sanitary and phytosanitary 
measures could be included in the work programme currently being elaborated by the STDF.  The 
WTO and OECD were also discussing what further work  could be done in respect to looking at some 
of the case stories in more detail.  In addition, th e various themes which came out of the case stories 
could be further addressed in the 2012-2013 AfT wo rk programme for which ideas and suggestions 
from Members would be welcome.  He also encouraged Members and Observers to use the case story 
information for their respective work on Aid for Trade.   
41. The representative of the OECD provided an  overview of the Experts Workshop on 
Implementation of Aid for Trade held on 29 March 2011.   The main objectives of the Workshop were 
to discuss some of the findings of the OECD's analy tical work on trade to id entify, for example, the 
binding constraints to trade expansion in developi ng countries, the prioritization and complementary 
policies needed to achieve maximum impact of trad e on growth (including in respect to AfT), and to 
discuss the methodological challenges involved in th e evaluation and trade impact of AfT.  The 
Workshop had also provided an opportunity to di scuss the method evaluation with respect to AfT 
projects focused on two countries (i.e. Ghana and Vi et Nam) and on two sectors (i.e. transport and 
storage). 15 
42. The key document for the Experts Workshop was the OECD's third report on binding 
constraints to trade which had been prepared on th e basis of questions arising from the Second Global 
Review of Aid for Trade.16  The report looked at issues such as how severe the various constraints 
were to developing countries' trade (including co untry-specific constraints for landlocked developing 
countries (LLDCs), small and vulnerable economies, and commodity exporters), what was the impact 
of those constraints not only in terms of trade but also on growth, and what were the impacts of 
exports and imports on growth.   The report found that although trade had, on average, an impact on 
growth, this impact was not the same for each count ry and there were large variations within the 
countries themselves.  It was also shown that both imports and exports promot ed growth.  The report 
identified a number of country-specific constraint s that had an important impact on developing 
countries' trade performance.  These included the reli ability of electricity, the access to credit, air and 
road infrastructure, tariff reductions, the macroec onomic environment, and ma nagement of exchange 
rates.  Also highlighted in the report was the f act that imports and exports did not face the same 
constraints and that these, too, were country sp ecific, as well as the importance of complementary 
policies and close coordination not only betw een donors but also between donors and partner 
countries. 
43. The representative of the EU said that the E xperts Workshop, which, he noted, had been 
financed under the EU budget, had allowed for an interesting discussion that could inspire but could 
not replace country-based work in assessing and determ ining what should be the key AfT priorities.  
He recalled that AfT was a complement to much larger private resources.  If the OECD report 
pointed, for example, to electricity as being a key area for improving trade performance that did not necessarily mean that AfT should go to providing electri city.  It pointed rather, perhaps, to the fact 
that efforts should be made to create an enabling environment th at encouraged private sector 
investment in the electricity sector.  The EU supported the emphasis that was being put on the impact of AfT, including in the agenda of the TGR, and wo uld engage fully in this work with both the WTO 
and the OECD.  It also agreed that results-based  management needed to be strengthened in AfT 
programmes and that efforts to measure impacts of AfT should be continued, at least in terms of direct 
impact, since attributing the final long-term impa ct to a specific programme was methodologically 
                                                      
15 Background documents and presentations from the Workshop can be found at 
http://www.oecd.org/document/17/0,3746,en_2649_34665_47256401_1_1_1_1,00.html . 
16 "Estimating the Constraints to Developing Countries'  Trade" (Hallaert, J.J., R. Cavazos, and G. Kang 
(2011).  http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/55/28/47428944.pdf; 
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=546100    WT/COMTD/AFT/M/20 
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  challenging in terms of AfT as well as ODA.  Monitori ng also had to be done in a way that built the 
capacity of developing countries to assess, themselves,  whether their own trade strategies were the 
right ones or needed to be adjusted.  Finally, in AfT,  as in ODA in general, care  needed to be taken so 
that the focus on results did not create competiti on among donors to produce the biggest and brightest 
results leading to donors choosing short term wins and going for low risk approaches, a consequence 
of which could be AfT "have nots" or "orphans". 
44. The representative of Mali said that his de legation welcomed, and had taken note of, the 
Director-General's response regarding the issues it ha d raised.  With respect to the Experts Workshop 
on Implementation of Aid for Trade, he wished to dr aw attention particularly to the constraints faced 
by LLDCs and said that further work on a detaile d diagnosis could be done at a later stage. 
45. Referring to the OECD's report on binding constr aints and noting that complementary policies 
were country-specific and that it was difficult to generalize, the representative of Ethiopia asked how 
the report had arrived at the conclusion that LLDCs  were less open than other rich developing 
countries.   
46. In response, the representative of the OECD indi cated that it was a statistical fact that the 
trade openness of LLDCs was lower than others a nd that this was one reason why the report had 
looked at the specific constraints of those countri es.  The lower level of trade openness could be 
attributed to many reasons including with regard to  policy, transit, or geographical related issues.  
Several variables, including on quality and quantity, had been used in respect to data regarding 
LLDCs and this had shown that the imp act, although positive, was not significant. 
5. Private Sector 
47. The representative of the ITC said that the IT C was preparing specific private sector case 
studies to contribute to measuring the effectiveness of AfT.  In addition to a case story on Uganda, 
which had already been finalized, studies were al so being prepared on Rwanda, Kenya and Mauritania 
which were expected to be finalized in the comi ng weeks.  The studies covered the specific business 
perspective in evaluating AfT achievements.  The case study on Uganda, for example, evaluated the 
impact of AfT for the period 2005-2010 on the b asis of views gathered from approximately 100 
exporting companies as well as 20 business associati ons.  Issues included in the questions of the 
surveys conducted in relation to this case study ex ercise covered, for exampl e, export competitiveness 
and the role of trade support services in improvi ng the business environment and in addressing trade 
constraints.  ITC was also preparing a general impact study focusing on direct and indirect impact of AfT targeted on key economic variables that ha d an impact on international competitiveness of 
developing country companies.  She informed that small and medium-sized enterprises were at the 
centre of ITC's analysis.  ITC looked forward to sharing its findings at a later stage. 
D. O
THER  BUSINESS  
48. No item was raised under "Other Business". 
49. The Chairman informed that the next regular CTD-AfT meeting was scheduled to take place 
on 24 June.  The AfT session would be preceded on 23 June by an M&E Workshop where discussion 
would focus, in particular, on AfT case stories and the next steps with regard to the M&E of AfT.  
Details of the meetings would be announced at a later stage.   
50. The meeting was adjourned. 
__________