RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/COMTD/AFT/M/9 
15 July 2009 
 (09-3443) 
Committee on Trade and Development 
Ninth Session on Aid for Trade  
 
 
 
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 27 FEBRUARY 2009 
 
Chairman:  H.E. Mr. Shree B.C. Servansing (Mauritius) 
  
A.
 ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA .........................................................................................................1  
B. PROPOSED AID FOR TRADE ROADMAP FOR 2009  (WT/COMTD /AFT/W/11) - STATEMENT 
BY THE WTO DIRECTOR -GENERAL ...............................................................................................1  
C. SECOND GLOBAL REVIEW  OF AID FOR TRADE - STATE OF PLAY OF PREPARATIONS ....................3  
D. STATE OF PLAY ON MONITORING - QUESTIONNAIRES AND INDICATORS .....................................4  
E. OTHER BUSINESS .......................................................................................................................12  
 
 A. 
ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA  
1. The draft agenda for the meeting as contained in Airgram WTO/AIR/3311 of 
6 February 2009 was adopted . 
B. PROPOSED AID FOR TRADE ROADMAP FOR 2009  (WT/COMTD /AFT/W/11) - STATEMENT BY THE 
WTO DIRECTOR -GENERAL  
2. The Director-General  referred to the serious global economic downturn and said that 2009 
would be a challenging year for the Aid-for-Trade initia tive, particularly as far as the preparations for 
the 2nd Global Review of Aid for Trade were concerned.   He then provided an outline and summary of 
the five main objectives of the 2009 Aid-for-Trade Ro admap, which had been circulated to Members 
in WT/COMTD/AFT/W/11, and presented an overview of the preparations for the 2nd Global Review. 
3. The key objective of the Roadmap was the need to continue the momentum on Aid for Trade, 
especially given the current global financial crisis.  He said this would pose major challenges to many 
donor governments in their efforts to ensure that Aid-for-Trade flows were maintained and, while no 
reduction of such flows was in sight, the situati on required monitoring.  The second objective was to 
increase developing-country ownership of Aid for Trade.  Progress had already been made in this regard with more countries organizing national re views and participating in regional reviews.  
Increased interest had also been shown with respect to the Aid-fo r-Trade questionnaire with partner 
countries actively seeking more information and w ith agencies on the ground offering assistance as 
regards its completion.  This pro-active stance s hould be maintained.  The third objective of the 
Roadmap was to keep moving from commitment to im plementation of Aid for Trade.  This applied 
not only to donors – who were being asked to disburse funds they had pledged – but also to the partner countries who would need to make sure that  funds went where they were most needed.  For 
the partner countries, this required efforts to be made in-country and for consultations to be held 
across Ministries.  It also required a strategy for ma king sure that the funds were put to the best use 
possible.  The fourth objective of the Roadmap concerned monitoring the implementation at the WT/COMTD/AFT/M/9 
Page 2  
 
  country, regional and sectoral le vel.  He said that the comp leted donor and partner-country 
questionnaires – which had been revised to improve quality – would be one of the tools used for the 
monitoring exercise.  The self-evaluations by indi vidual countries would help  track funds which had 
been committed against those that had been ple dged and those that had been dispersed.  The 
questionnaires were also key in helping to understand on what the funds were spent. 
4. The fifth objective was that work would conti nue to focus on further refining the performance 
indicators in a continued effort to monitor the effect iveness of Aid for Trade.  The focus, here, was on 
identifying a suitable cluster of indicators to benc hmark progress in building trade capacity.  He then 
explained that, when monitoring Aid for Trade at th e multilateral, regional and national levels, one of 
the key tools which would be used  to measure the flows of Aid for Trade was the OECD data as 
collected in the Creditor Reporting System (CRS).   This data, which governments had received the 
previous year and on which they were invited to comment, included an average for commitments for 
the period 2002-2005 and commitments and disbursem ents made in both 2006 and 2007.  The data 
which was presented under four categories, namely , trade policy and regulations and trade-policy 
adjustments, economic infrastructure, building produc tive capacity, and other trade-related needs, also 
provided a breakdown of the share of total Aid-for-T rade as compared with total ODA.  Responses for 
the questionnaire of the self-evaluations carried out by donor and partner countries would also assist 
in measuring the impact and effectiveness of Aid for Tr ade.  In this regard he informed that a list of 
some 49 donors, including 16 international orga nizations, and 65 partner countries had submitted 
response to the questionnaires.  A list of the go vernments and institutions which had responded was 
made available to delegations in the room.  He i ndicated that the higher response rate was not only a 
tribute to the work done by the OECD to simplify the questionnaire, but also to the efforts of many 
developing and least-developed countries.  The questionnaire had been re-designed to include 
comments and suggestions made by partner countries in  numerous rounds of consultations organized 
by the OECD, by AITIC, and by the WTO Secretaria t.  Without the active involvement of so many 
developing-country partners, this reasonably good and encouraging ra te of response would not have 
been achieved.  In response to the request from some members for additional time to complete the 
questionnaire, he said that submissions could be accepted until 6 March, after which date it would no 
longer be possible to include the responses in the Aid-for-Trade at a Glance 2009, the publication 
which the OECD was preparing for the 2
nd Global Review in July.  He urged all countries that had not 
yet submitted their responses to do so as quickly as possible;  the questionnaires were a valuable 
exercise and represented an important opportunity fo r delegations to provide feedback about their 
respective priorities and experience. 
5. Turning to the regional reviews and activities of regional development banks (RDBs), the 
Roadmap also provided details of the national and sub-regional reviews planned in Asia, Africa, and 
in the Latin American and Caribbean region.  He we lcomed the fact that in the different geographical 
areas, national actors and regional development banks were playing an increasingly important role.  
Their involvement was key to a successful implem entation of the Aid-for-Trade initiative and their 
work, as well as the results of their respective me etings, would feed into the Global Review.  The 
implementation of some key projects being carried  out by the RDBs would be showcased at the 
Global Review.  Two examples of such projects we re:  North-South Corridor Initiative in Africa and 
the Greater Mekong Sub-Region Project in Asia.  Pr ogress made in relation to these projects reflected 
the evolution of the Aid-for-Trade initiative since the 1st Global Review from commitment to 
implementation.  These examples demonstrated how ke y stakeholders had come together to fill the 
gaps which had been identified in key Aid-for-T rade projects, how specific bottlenecks were being 
removed and how potential business opportunities were being unleashed.  The 2nd Global Review 
would help showcase the specific projects which had b een selected by the RDBs to realize, in both 
cases, the implementation of the North-South Corridor and the Greater Mekong Sub-Region Project.  
As an example, he cited the regional review held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in October 2007, where 
regional integration and infrastructure improvements had been identified as areas of priority need and  WT/COMTD/AFT/M/9 
 Page 3 
 
 
  where the World Bank had estimated Africa's unmet infrastructure needs at mo re than US$20 billion a 
year, with another US$15 billion requir ed for maintenance and operation. 
6. Regarding the North-South Corridor, he informed that he would participate in the joint 
COMESA-EAC-SADC meeting which would discuss how  to take the North-South Corridor Initiative 
forward.  The North-South Corridor was one of va rious regional transport and energy initiatives in 
Southern Africa aimed at helping countries in the re gion reap the benefits not only of the multilateral 
trading system but also of their own efforts towa rds regional integration.  Estimates of the positive 
impact of the Corridor suggested an initial 10 per cent annual stimulus to regional trade rising to 
50 per cent by the Corridor's completion. 
7. Turning to Asia, he said that the Greater  Mekong Delta Economic C ooperation Program had 
built an impressive record which showcased the great potential of Aid for Trade.  This Asian 
Development Bank co-ordinated program had supported projects in transport, energy, telecommunications, environment, human resource development, tourism, trade, private sector 
investment and agriculture.  Japan  had also been one of the donors in the vanguard of efforts to 
promote regional co-operation in the Delta region and results were already impressive.  Exports from 
the seven Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) econom ies rose to more than US$150 billion in 2005 
from roughly US$40 billion in 1990, representing a growth rate nearly twice that of world exports.  
Nonetheless, the GMS economies still accounted for a small share of world trade, roughly 1.5 per cent, suggesting that considerable room  remained for investment and trade-related 
development assistance. 
8. Both the North-South Corridor and the Gr eater Mekong Sub-Region Project underlined the 
positive impact of Aid for Trade integrated re gional infrastructure project programmes.  By 
showcasing them at the 2
nd Global Review, valuable lessons woul d be learned about what had worked 
well and what had not.  These best practices could then  be put to use when t ackling other priorities. 
C. SECOND GLOBAL REVIEW  OF AID FOR TRADE - STATE OF PLAY OF PREPARATIONS  
9. The Director-General  confirmed that the 2nd Global Review of Aid for Trade would take place 
in Geneva on 6 and 7 July.  The overall format of the meeting would be similar to the 2007 Review 
but would focus much more on how commitments were  translating into concrete action.  Key donors 
and partner countries, the heads of the main inte rnational economic organizations, as well as the heads 
of the RDBs would attend.  He then explained the four main themes which would be the focus of the 
review. 
10. The first theme was the experience since the 1st Review.  Here, high level panels of bilateral 
donors and multilateral agencies would be invited to discuss how momentum could be sustained 
against the backdrop of a worsening global outlook.  Provisional numbers in this  regard showed that 
Aid-for-Trade flows had increased in line with commitments taken by donors in 2005.  Some of the questions that would be addressed were:  were thes e numbers confirmed;  was this diagnosis of an 
overall improvement shared by stakeholders;  what  was the ability of traditional donors to engage in 
long-term, additional commitments;  and what additionality could be offered by emerging 
non-traditional donors. 
11. The second theme was the implementation outlook.  Given the on-going financial crisis, he 
said it was only right that the question of trade finance should feature prominently.  The crisis overshadowed deeper structural issues of access to  trade finance in developing countries which had 
already been identified during the regional revi ews of Aid for Trade held in September and 
October 2007.  Other constraints identified during th e 2007 regional reviews would also be examined 
through case studies, the common theme of which would be that of regional infrastructure integration 
and comparison of good practice across different regions. WT/COMTD/AFT/M/9 
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  12. The third focus of discussion at the Global Review would be on the key messages that had 
emerged from the responses to the donor and partne r-country questionnaires regarding efforts to 
mainstream trade in national deve lopment strategies.  The fourth focus of the Global Review would 
be on assessing the impact and effectiveness of Aid for Trade and what kind of conclusions had emerged from the monitoring framework. 
13. Private sector and civil society specific sessions were also planned and efforts would be made 
to engage individuals who did not always have a lo t of interaction with government officials but who 
had good ideas about what was needed in their co untries or regions from an Aid-for-Trade point of 
view.  In this regard, he welcomed suggestions  from delegations on who could be invited to 
participate in these specific sessions.  The concl uding session of the Global Review would allow for 
discussion on the next steps to be ta ken under the Aid-for-Trade initiative. 
14. He emphasized that the continued active particip ation of Members would be important for the 
success of the 2
nd Global Review.  It was in fact the Members' Global Review where they could raise 
concerns and suggest what else could be done to bui ld more and better trade capacity.  He believed 
that substantial strides had been  made since November 2007 regard ing both the understanding of how 
Aid for Trade worked and on the delivery of Aid for Trade.  This was critical information and a vital 
input which could help pave the way to realizing more gains from trade. 
15. In conclusion, he thanked the immense efforts not only by Members but also by the RDBs, 
without whose resources these projects would not have  been possible.  Much work remained to be 
done on the implementation front, es pecially with regard to filli ng the gaps between needs and 
delivery and measuring the impact and effectivene ss of Aid for Trade.  It was hoped that with 
Members' help and through the ac tivities and objectives that had been  detailed in the Roadmap and in 
the draft programme for the 2nd Global Review, that this would continue. 
D. STATE OF PLAY ON MONITORING - QUESTIONNAIRES AND INDICATORS  
16. The representative of the OECD  provided information on the monitoring and evaluation 
framework, the joint OECD-WTO Aid-for-Trade at a Glance 2009 publication which would be 
presented at the 2nd Global Review of Aid for Trade, and on  the 2006 and 2007 Aid-for-Trade data. 
17. Regarding the monitoring and evaluation framework , he believed that the evaluation part of 
that framework was reaching closure.  He said it was important, in the present time of financial crisis, to show that Aid for Trade was delivering on poverty reduction impacts through trade.  The 
monitoring and evaluation work was based on f our elements:  quantitative analysis, qualitative 
analysis, global Aid-for-Trade flows, and performan ce indicators.  Together, these would be presented 
at the 2
nd Global Review in a joint OECD-WTO publica tion which would provide an overview of the 
global aid-for-trade flows of 2006 and 2007, an analys is of the self assessments by donor and partner 
countries, a special chapter in cooperation with th e regional development banks about infrastructure 
corridors in Latin America and the Caribbean, in Africa, and in the Greater Mekong Delta, and, 
finally, fact sheets showing aid for trade indicators.  He said that a more detailed outline of the 
publication and a mock-up country fact sheet woul d be presented to the Committee at its meeting 
scheduled for end March/early April. 
18. On the question of indicators, he said that the whole Aid-for-Trade initiative was based on a 
logical framework:  there was a n eed for low-income countries to bu ild up trade capacity, there was a 
supply by donors of programmes that helped them to build up trade capacity, programmes of technical 
assistance, infrastructure in productive capacity building and in trade-related adjustment.  
Trade-related adjustment would probably be a grow ing sector given the current economic crisis.  The 
objective of these programmes was to deliver an output and to improve trade capacity in order to  WT/COMTD/AFT/M/9 
 Page 5 
 
 
  reach globally agreed Millennium Development Goal s (MDGs) and, in particular, MDG No. 1 which 
was to reduce poverty, and MDG No. 8 wh ich was to achieve global partnership.  
19. In their self assessments, partner countries had id entified and ranked in order of priority the 
categories listed by the WTO Aid-for-Trade Task Fo rce, whether these priorities were operational and 
whether they had been mainstreamed in their deve lopment strategies.  As output, there was micro and 
macro data, or programme-related indicators and performance-related indicators.  These categories 
had been identified by the WTO based on the discussion at the Symposium on Monitoring and 
Evaluation:  Identifying Indicators for Monitoring Aid for Trade, held in September 2008.  He believed there was a clear understanding that there was now a set of indicators for all the different 
types of programmes so that priorities identified by  a partner country in its self assessment could be 
linked to a set of indicators.  The idea would then  be to compare these indicators with, for example, 
income groups (i.e. least-developed countries, middle-income countries, developing countries) and regions (i.e. Africa, Asia, and othe r the sub-regions), and, finally, the MDGs.  The Aid-for-Trade at a 
Glance publication would include a two-page fact sheet prepared for each country that had responded 
to the questionnaire providing information on (i) priorities identified by each country, 
(ii) Aid-for-Trade commitments and disburseme nts as identified by the OECD CRS database, 
(iii) performance;  and (iv) impact on the MDGs.  It was hoped that the fact sheets would form the 
basis of an in-country dialogue which would then l ead to an effective implementation of programmes 
at the county level.  The publication would also  provide some forward looking numbers, based on 
information from donors' RDA flows, which would give a more precise picture on how ODA flows would look in 2008 and 2009.  
20. Turning to Aid-for-Trade flows, he said th at a baseline of 2002-2005 had been established 
which had amounted to approximately US$20 billi on.  In 2006, this figure had increased by 
11 per cent in real terms, and then had conti nued to go up by 10 per cent compared to 2006.  
Compared to this baseline, by 2007 there had be en an impressive increase of 22.5 per cent which 
showed that the share of Aid-for-Trade in total ai d was increasing.  This was one of the objectives of 
the Aid-for-Trade initiative.  Total Aid-for-Tra de flows in 2007 increased by US$4.3 billion 
compared to the baseline and the share between multilateral and b ilateral donors was relatively stable .  
Sectoral distribution of aid remained relatively stab le with infrastructure taking up over 50 per cent, 
and productive capacity building was at 43 per cent.  Although only a small part of this distribution, 
the technical assistance programmes organized by the WTO and by donors were very effective in 
raising awareness about the role of trade in deve lopment.  He said that since the Aid-for-Trade 
initiative had started in 2004/2005, there had been great achievements and the awareness of the role 
trade could play in economic growth and reducing p overty had seriously increased.  The challenge set 
for the next Global Review to maintain moment um during the economic downturn and to come up 
with evidence that the money spen t on building up trade capacity did indeed lead to development and 
reduce poverty. 
21. The representative of the European Communities
 said the EC shared the broad objectives 
contained in the Roadmap and gave assurances that it would continue to cont ribute to the success of 
Aid for Trade both in Geneva and, most importantly , at country level.  The EU was a very active 
player in the area of Aid for Trade and had put together a Joint EU Aid-for-Trade Strategy which 
would be an important tool by which to channel more and better EU support and to anchor Aid for 
Trade more firmly into EU development cooperation.   Given the current financial crisis – which was 
difficult for the world as a whole and developing countries in particular – it was even more important 
and necessary to maintain the momentum on Aid for Trade.  While each country had primary 
responsibility for its development, the EC remain ed committed to assisting developing countries in 
their efforts, and continued to respect the commitm ents made in Monterrey on Official Development 
Assistance (ODA).  More specifically, in terms of Aid for Trade, the EC had made substantial 
progress in implementing the pledges made in Hong K ong, and, in 2007, had ve ry nearly achieved the 
Hong Kong objective of €1 billion of trade -related assistance from the Community budget. WT/COMTD/AFT/M/9 
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  22. The WTO had played a very useful and effec tive role in generating momentum for Aid for 
Trade as a complement to a succes sful DDA.  Now that the spotlight effect had been achieved, it was 
time to look at more concrete implementation issues.  Greater ownership of Aid for Trade by 
developing countries was needed and, in this contex t, the EC welcomed the efforts by the Secretariat 
and the OECD to better involve beneficiary countries in the monitoring of Aid for Trade.  The good 
rate of response to the partner country questionn aires was a very encouraging and welcome sign. 
However, monitoring from the WTO should not onl y cover the financial commitments from donors, 
but also to what extent developing partners were  mainstreaming trade in their development plans.  
The EC would contribute to and actively participat e in the national and sub -regional reviews and the 
2
nd Global Review.  During these reviews, the EC looked forward to working with developing 
partners and hearing concrete proposals on how to mainstream trade in national development 
strategies.  This should help to understand how to best utilize the Aid-for-Trade funds that had been 
committed by donors.  For this reason, the natio nal and sub-regional reviews should be linked as 
much as possible to local and regional processes and dialogues on Aid for Trade, including existing 
and new donor coordination mechanisms.  Where possible, the regional reviews should focus on 
exchanging good practices and on assisting in peer review exercises. 
23. Turning to the issue of Aid for Trade indicator s, the EC had already made some suggestions 
and looked forward to hearing concrete proposal s and to discussions with developing country 
partners.  The EC appreciated the openness of th e Secretariat to discuss informally the various 
elements of the Roadmap with stak eholders.  Through its work on Aid fo r Trade in Geneva, as well as 
on the ground in developing countries, the EC had de monstrated that it was very much committed to 
the Aid-for-Trade initiative, irrespective of the outco me of the Doha Round.  The EC also remained 
fully committed to a successful and rapid conc lusion of the Round which should bring genuine 
development gains for the weaker and more vulnerable WTO Members. 
24. The representative of Argentina  said his delegation welcomed the Roadmap which explained 
very well the elements necessary for the Global Review .  With respect to the statement made by the 
Director-General, Argentina wished to highlight two important issues, namely the importance of 
sustaining trade and the capacity to promote the productive powers of countries during the current financial crisis which were both ke y elements of Aid for Trade in order to support the commitment of 
donors and recipients and Members countries.  Commenting briefly on the Roadmap, Argentina 
welcomed the important work that had been done in North Africa and Southern Asia, but wished to 
know more about the state of play of regional proj ects that were under way in Latin America and the 
Caribbean.  Argentina also wished to have more  information about the Aid-for-Trade Knowledge 
Network which was mentioned in the Roadmap unde r the heading "Global Monitoring – Indicators" 
as well as on the content of the Agenda of the sub -regional meeting to be held for Latin America. 
25. He then made a number of comments regarding th e Global Review.  First, in particular with 
respect to the statement by the Director-General, Argentina had mentioned on several occasions the 
importance of North-South and South-South coop eration and the role of donors and technical 
cooperation.  Argentina also supported the role of civil society which they believed were indirect 
stakeholders and beneficiaries of aid for trade.  In respect to maintaining momentum, he drew attention to some key elements that could be a ddressed in light of the current financial crisis:  
financing for trade, which was extremely importa nt for developing countries and especially LDCs, 
and maintaining and promoting trade capacities without which aid for trade would be very limited.  In 
conclusion, he asked the representative of the OECD whether expectations from the last report, for the 
period up to 2010, would be maintained at the amount of US$30 billion or were there other 
considerations in this respect. 
26. The representative of Norway
 said his delegation believed that the Roadmap presented by the 
Director-General pointed in the right direction.  In the current financial crisis, it was important to 
maintain a strong focus on Aid for Trade and Norw ay appreciated the Director-General's commitment  WT/COMTD/AFT/M/9 
 Page 7 
 
 
  to that part of the WTO's agenda.  With resp ect to the presentation by the OECD, he said that 
information on past flows was encouraging, but it woul d be a challenge for all to work to maintain the 
positive developments that had been highlighted.  No rway remained a firm supporter of Aid for Trade 
and the Norwegian Aid-for-Trade Action Plan appr oved in 2007 outlined his Government's strong 
commitment to support the implementation of this global initiative and to actively participate in any 
follow up.  He informed that in the State budge t for 2009, Norway had allocated NKr26.2 billion for 
international development cooperation and, by doing so, would reach its  target of providing 1 per cent 
of its gross national income for development.  Th e Government was committed to maintaining this 
level despite the current financial downturn.  No rway endorsed the emphasis in the Roadmap on 
increased development country ownership of aid for tr ade and believed that this played a crucial role 
in moving from commitment to implementation of aid for trade.  As regards the monitoring of 
implementation, Norway welcomed the focus on count ry, regional, and sectoral priorities and looked 
forward to reviewing results at the 2nd Global Review in July. 
27. The representative of Japan  said his delegation was encouraged by the Director-General's 
presentation of the Roadmap and appreciated that the 2nd Global Review would be highlighting the 
Greater Mekong Sub-Region Project where Japan was pr oviding substantial assistance.  He reiterated 
Japan's commitment to the Aid-for-Trade initia tive as expressed by Ambassador Yukota in the 
recently-held Trade Policy Review of Japan.  Based  on that strong commitment, his delegation was 
convinced that Tokyo would devote its utmost efforts to ensure that the 2nd Global Review was a 
success and to make Aid for Trade work for development. 
28. The representative of Canada  expressed appreciation for the Di rector-General's report and for 
the work done by the WTO Secretariat and the OECD.  He believed that preparations were ahead of 
the curve looked forward to a fruitful discussion at the 2nd Global Review.  Canada was particularly 
impressed by the strong response rate on the questionnaires, both those directed at donors and those aimed at developing-country members.  The r esponses, which Canada hope d would continue to 
augment, would provide much useful information upon which to base discussions in July.  The variety 
and depth of the lead-up events that were to take  place in the various regions was also welcomed.  
One concern that his delegation had, however, rela ted to the sheer volume of activities and how the 
various events would feed into the July meeting.  Some guidance in this regard would certainly assist 
in prioritizing Canada's participation in the events  over the next few months.  Turning to the agenda 
for the Global Review, his delegation welcomed  the proposed session on overcoming trade finance 
constraints which, given the current economic cl imate and the WTO's own work on trade finance, 
would provide a particular interest to all Member s.  The proposal to have a session focused on the 
private sector was critically important from a Canadian perspective if progress on Aid for Trade was to be made.  He suggested that the involvement of the private sector could be better focused, for 
example, by integrating representatives of the priv ate sector into one of the thematic discussions;  
there could be merit in bringing in private-sector  perspectives when talking about overcoming trade 
finance constraints.  Canada remained deeply committed to ensuring the effectiveness of its aid 
spending, ensuring that its Aid-for-Trade funds were  well spent, and yielding sustainable, meaningful 
results was a priority.  Getting the indicators right was an important part of this exercise and Canada therefore looked forward to a discussion on this at the next Committee on Trade and Development 
(CTD) meeting.  Canada had actively engaged Aid fo r Trade at the bilateral, regional and multilateral 
levels and the 2
nd Global Review was an important milestone.  The Review would help to keep focus 
on the Aid-for-Trade agenda but would also hopefully be an opportunity to share some of the 
important lessons that were being learnt. 
29. The representative of the United States  said that the US remained committed to Aid for Trade 
and, more broadly, to development.  In 2008, th e US had raised its Aid-for-Trade expenditures to 
US$2.3 billion which was a very large increase from the previous year.  The Budget to be presented 
by President Obama in Congress the following month would put the United States on a path to double 
US foreign assistance over the coming years.  The funding was intended to help the world's weakest WT/COMTD/AFT/M/9 
Page 8  
 
  states, reduce poverty, combat global health threat s, develop markets, govern peacefully, and expand 
democracy worldwide. 
30. Trade was an integral part of all economies and trade-related assistance needed to be an 
integral part of all Members' development plans.  The United States had made great efforts to make 
sure that trade-related assistance was not something that lived in a stovepipe but was fully integrated 
in its development programmes.  The importance of what was being done in relation to the 
Aid-for-Trade initiative, and particularly what was being done over the ne xt few months in the 
regional events and Global Review, was to learn bett er how trade could be ma instreamed in national 
development programmes.  Since resources across development agencies were constrained, it was 
important to ensure that trade became an integral part of all Members' development plans.  As an 
example of some success in this regard, she c ited the Millennium Challenge  Corporation (MCC) over 
half of whose programmes were Aid for Trade.  When participating countries asked the MCC for 
support, they probably did not realize they were Aid-for-Trade related, concentrating rather on 
specifics, e.g., the need to fix a bottleneck on a road  so that a port could be fully utilized, or, in 
agricultural areas, the fact that farmers could not get their products to market.  She said there was also 
a lot of work being done in the development co mmunity on food security which had a huge trade 
element.  However, when the development agencies  talked about how to improve a situation, they 
thought not of trade but rather about infrastructure needs or how to move things across borders.  These were examples of integration and she enc ouraged all countries to redouble their efforts to 
integrate.  Integration would be an important pa rt of the discussions during the work being done in 
2008.  In conclusion, she said that the outstanding response to the questionnaires spoke very well to 
the work that had been done over the last  two years in the CTD across all countries. 
31. The representative of Côte d'Ivoire
 expressed his delegation's appreciation for the work done 
by the OECD and for the Director-General's presentation of the Roadmap and preparations for the 2
nd Global Review of Aid for Trade.  His delega tion considered Aid for Trade to be an essential 
component of the Doha Development Agenda, but Aid for Trade should not be determined by the 
dynamics of Doha.  Developing c ountries attributed great importance to Aid for Trade for their 
growth and development and if th is was constant and sustained it could serve as a buffer against the 
external shocks that these countries were suffering  because of the economic crisis.  Côte d'Ivoire 
represented only 3 per cent of world trade despite Af rica's potential and huge natural resources.  That 
was why Africa should increase its export capacities,  strengthen its competitiveness and improve its 
trade-related infrastructure.  There were risks re lated to achieving these objectives;  donors were also 
faced with the effects of the crisis which resulted in limited funds being available.  The main donor 
countries had to establish priorities and his dele gation wished to call upon the donors to at least 
stabilize their efforts if they were not able to  increase them.  Some developing and developed 
countries had already taken initiatives and measures to fight against protectionism, to face up to the 
negative effects of the crisis, and to limit the inequalities of these countries. 
32. Over the past two years, Côte d'Ivoire had bene fited from an increase in Aid-for-Trade flows.  
National initiatives had been put in place to deal  with the current economic crisis, including a 
decrease in direct foreign investment and capital fro m private investors in order to cover the losses 
from western sources.  As well as assistance provided through its financial institutions such as the 
African Development Bank, Côte d'Ivoire also had new facilities to take account of the urgent needs 
that had arisen as a result of the current crisis .  These new facilities included US$1 billion for the 
financing of external trade and an amount of a pproximately US$1.5 billion to provide facilities for 
projects.  It was important to note that over a four-year period this figure would reach US$4 billion.  His delegation urged the Director-General to continue  efforts in convincing donors of the need for Aid 
for Trade, particularly in light of the current economic crisis, so that Africa could benefit from 
increased trade flows.  WT/COMTD/AFT/M/9 
 Page 9 
 
 
  33. The representative of Colombia  welcomed the report by the Director-General and the 
overview of the various elements contained in the Aid-for-Trade Roadmap for 2008 and the 
information provided by the OECD.  Colombia cons idered that the elements  in the Roadmap were 
appropriate for  achieving the general objectives set fo rth in the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration.  
Colombia was taking the self assessment process very seriously because it enabled his Government to 
reflect and carry out internal organization in or der to highlight to the donors Colombia's goals, 
policies and economic development instruments as we ll as cooperation needs to achieve these goals.  
He said that in its response to the 2008 questionnair e, Colombia had reiterated that its Government 
had a national economic development strategy which contained three priority areas for action, namely, 
competitiveness, globalization of the economy, and productive processing.  A detailed description of 
what these three areas of action consisted was provided as was a specific example of an Aid-for-Trade 
programme which had obtained good outcomes.  It was due to this programme that many companies 
had benefited from quality certifi cations which had facilitated mark eting of their products.  Both 
Colombia's strategy and areas for action were re sults of an organized and constructive dialogue 
between the various stakeholders.  In addition, Colombia was also seeking to maintain ongoing 
communication channels with its donors.  In this  respect, Colombia beli eved that there was a 
communication problem with donors which had been fl agged in the third section of the questionnaire. 
34. On global monitoring, and particularly indicat ors, Colombia agreed with the three main 
elements, namely that the monitoring work should be  divided up in line with what was discussed at 
the 2008 Symposium on Monitoring and Evaluation.  These elements could be summed up in supply, 
demand, and the interface amongst the two.  Colomb ia was currently reviewing the indicators at a 
micro-economic level which had been presented as an example at the Symposium.  Indicators had 
also been assessed from other organizations, incl uding NGOs and the World Economic Forum.  Not 
all had been designed using the same methodology, no r did they place the same emphasis in the same 
areas, and the end goal of the indicators was not iden tical.  Colombia would therefore like to continue 
to take part in the informal consultations of th e Committee on this issue.  In its response to the 
questionnaire, Colombia wished to underscore that it had noted that the exact amount of Aid for Trade 
that donor countries believed they had supplied to Co lombia was not known.  In this connection, it 
would be appropriate for the info rmation supplied by the donors to  the OECD CRS system to be 
verified with the trade recipients;  the ideal would be to have figures that had been validated both by 
the donors and by the recipients.  Colombia was very  interested in taking part in the LAC regional 
review that would be held in the Caribbean on 4 and 5 May.  The Latin American region had been 
lagging behind others with respect to Aid for Tr ade and it was incumbent on the LAC countries to set 
clear priorities and strategies with a view to pr omoting demands amongst donors.  Colombia would 
also continue to work internally and domestically to prepare its participation in the Global Review and 
hoped to receive updated information on the preparat ory work for the Review.  In conclusion, he 
wished to highlight three points which Colombia be lieved to be relevant in light of the current 
financial crisis.  First, there was a need for donors to continue to carefully listen to demandeurs in 
order to fine tune the use and effectiveness of aid.  Second, the demandeurs in turn needed to become 
further involved in the Aid-for-Trade process.  An d, third, this involved having further dialogue 
between Members and thinking creatively, partic ularly given that budgetary resources tended to 
become scarce.  This meant that one would need  to think about elements such as technical and 
specialized assistance as well as South-South c ooperation.  These elements could be used as 
guidelines for current and future work. 
35. The representative of China  expressed his delegation's appr eciation for the report by the 
Director-General and for the presentation made by the representative of the OECD.  He said that 
countries were now facing the most difficult time of economic development in history and, as the 
Director-General had rightly pointed out, in ever y economic crisis it was the poor and the weak who 
suffered most.  Developing countries, especially the LDCs, with limited resources and capacity, 
would be confronted with more challenges and theref ore deserved more attention, particularly in the 
field of aid, aid in general terms, and Aid for Trade.  Therefore, China fully supported the WT/COMTD/AFT/M/9 
Page 10  
 
  recommendation made by the Director-General at the December 2008 meeting of the Trade 
Negotiations Committee that in addition to the Doha  negotiations, Aid for Trade should be one of the 
focuses in 2009.  Momentum on Aid for Trade should be maintained and shoul d continue to provide 
adequate assistance during the economic downturn.  This was also one of the areas in which the WTO 
could contribute in responding to the current cris is.  China encouraged the developed Member donors 
to take the lead in this process and to help de veloping Members rebuild their confidence and improve 
capacity through continued efforts in additional funds for Aid for Trade. 
36. As a major developing Member, China attached  great importance to Aid for Trade and had 
made efforts, bilaterally and multilaterally, to provi de assistance to other developing Members.  Just 
recently, for example, President Hu Jintao had paid a State visit to four African countries to reiterate 
China's commitments to enhance bilateral coopera tion and to implement m easures agreed at the 
Beijing Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.  Furthe rmore, a series of follow-up activities would be 
held this year both in Africa and in China.  Ch ina would also focus on regional cooperation;  as a 
major participant to the Greater Mekong Delta Sub- Region Project, China would continue to work 
actively with its partners to help make the project more effective and more fruitful.  In conclusion, he 
said that China supported the 2009 Roadmap and looked  forward to the Global Review in July.  China 
was committed to actively participate in this important process. 
37. The representative of Kenya
 thanked the Director-General for his comprehensive report and 
presentation of the Roadmap and the OECD for the information provided regarding flows of Aid for 
Trade.  Kenya welcomed the involvement of develo ping countries, particularly with regard to the 
ownership of Aid for Trade.  Kenya looked forwar d to the Global Review and being able to see the 
state of play regarding the issue of Aid for Trade.  His delegation agreed, too, that the involvement of 
the private sector was critical to the Aid-for-Trade  process, as ultimately the private sector were the 
end users of the outcome and results of Aid for Trad e.  Regional integration and infrastructure - issues 
that had already been taken up within COMESA, EAC, and SADC – were very important, especially 
since most of Kenya's external trade was still at a regional level.  Regarding ODA to Africa, Kenya 
welcomed the report that the OECD had given and the figures that showed the recent increase of ODA 
to the Africa region and wished to express thanks to  all donors that had made this increase possible.  
In conclusion, he said that an effective Globa l Review would send positive signals not only to 
countries but also to the private sector. 
38. The representative of Nicaragua  expressed her delegation's thanks to the Director-General for 
presenting the Roadmap as well as the inform ation on the preparatory work for the 2nd Global Review 
of Aid for Trade.  She said her de legation was following this issue with great interest and wished to 
express full support to the five objectives contained in the Roadmap.  Given the current economic 
situation, the objectives were timely and pointed in the right direction to move towards better 
monitoring for Aid for Trade.  Nicaragua valued the important work undertaken by the WTO and the 
OECD in order to strengthen trade in development strategies and to analyse and quantify the difference between needs and effective aid as well as costs entailed as indicated in the Roadmap.  
With respect to the presentation made by the OECD, Nicaragua believed that in order to have a better 
appreciation of the reality it was hoped that the joint report to be discussed at the 2
nd Global Review 
would break down the analysis and the areas wher e Aid for Trade was directed, including to the 
extent possible, productive capacity and other areas.  As a final comment, Nicaragua wished to know what amount was being discussed with regard to the mention that Aid-for-Trade flows could be 
affected by a reduction of 1 to 2 per cent of the Gr oss National Income (GNI) of the member countries 
of the OECD. 
39. The representative of Pakistan
 commended the efforts made by the Director-General and the 
Secretariat with regard to the Ai d-for-Trade events and activities outlined in the Roadmap.  Pakistan 
considered that in the current situation it had beco me all the more important to sustain at least the 
current flow of Aid for Trade.  It was also impor tant for augmenting efficiency at the micro economic  WT/COMTD/AFT/M/9 
 Page 11 
 
 
  level, which in turn would provide an able envi ronment and integration into the world economy to 
take advantage of the opportunities available in the world trading scenario.  His delegation also 
wished to indicate its satisfacti on for the process and intensive work  undertaken by the OECD and the 
Secretariat to make the questionnaire more responsiv e to partner countries.  Pakistan was taking the 
self assessment exercise ve ry seriously and the questionnaire was an important step towards that.  The 
fact that both organizations had taken Pakistan 's concerns seriously was welcomed and the 
questionnaire responses provided a very useful medium  of feedback for monitoring effectively results 
of Aid for Trade which had become all the more im portant in the current economic crisis.  In its 
responses to the questionnaire, Pakistan had shared so me of its success stories.  One example was the 
upgrading of its SPS-related infrastructure and in ternational accreditation of laboratories.  His 
delegations wished to stress that Aid for Trade and the conclusion of the Doha Round complemented 
each other.  Pakistan looked forward to the Asian Development Bank's Regional Technical Group 
meeting to be held on 3 March and also the Globa l Review and various other meetings that were 
planned.  Pakistan hoped that the Global Review woul d be a success and that it would lead to a further 
increase of efforts to counteract the effe cts of the current economic situation. 
40. The representative of Brazil  expressed her delegation's appreciation of the Director-General's 
personal involvement in Aid for Trade which was an area that was close to the heart of developing 
countries.  Brazil was very much concerned with  the impact the current crisis would have on 
developing countries who unfortunate ly did not have the means to react appropriately to the new 
challenges.  In conclusion, she sai d that Brazil considered the proposed Roadmap to be appropriate 
and looked forward to participating in a colla borative manner to the successful conclusion of the 
2nd Global Review. 
41. In response to some of the comments rai sed by delegations, the Director-General  said that, in 
the very short term, the objective was to ensure that the Aid-for-Trade topic found its place on the 
agenda of the G-20 meeting that would take place at the beginning of April.  Since the issue of aid for 
development was part of the agenda for that meetin g, it would be in the Members' interest to do 
anything they could to highlight the Aid-for-Trade issue. 
42. Responding to specific questions that delegati ons had raised, the representative of the OECD  
said that, going by current trends, there woul d be no problem in reaching US$30 billion in 
Aid-for-Trade volume by 2010.  This, of course, wa s based on current trends and, given the current 
world economy, it was not certain how far these trends could be projected in the future.  With regard 
to South-South cooperation, he said that China had responded to the questionnaire on South-South 
cooperation and that some res ponses from partner countries had also addressed this issue. 
South-South cooperation would therefore definitely be  included in the joint OECD-WTO publication.  
On the question about specificity and recognition of the data that had been provided, he acknowledged that this was global data .  It was very difficult to provide specific project data in the 
publication when one was talking about US$25 billion.   All the data was available on the internet 
where access to individual country information, for a specific year or for a specific project had been 
made easier.  It was impossible to provide this specific information in the Global Review because 
there the aim was to refer to global numbers.  Even from the internet it was not easy to recognize 
descriptions of specific projects because donors had th eir own way of referring to and naming them.  
The figures for these projects related to commitments, not disbursements which was provided as different data.  Because of this difficulty to easily recognize projects a number of international 
organizations, including the World Bank and the UNDP, were developing what was called an Aid 
Management System.  This was a copy of the syst em that the OECD had, with the same kind of 
categorizations which allowed for the tracking and verification of development assistance received.  
The project was being used in a number of countries already, including in Malawi and Ethiopia, and the idea was to extend it even furt her.  The system would make it possible to check that what the 
OECD provided as data concurred with what was actu ally received. and it would take place in a wider WT/COMTD/AFT/M/9 
Page 12  
 
  context of development assistance making it effective,  for example, in the context of the Accra Action 
Agenda. 
43. The Chairman
 said that the meeting had been very informative and that Members' comments 
would be useful in helping to plan further the Ai d-for-Trade work, not only in the lead up to the 
2nd Global Review, but also for the rest of the year.  He thanked delegations for their continued active 
participation in the Aid-for-Trade initiative and said that , of particular note, was the fact that so many 
– developing and least-developed countries alike – ha d made great efforts to submit replies to the 
partner-county questionnaire.  These contribut ions would be a key element of the 2nd Global Review 
of Aid for Trade and he encouraged those delegations  that had not already done so, to submit replies 
before the extended deadline of 6 March.  He adde d that copies of the draft outline agenda for the 
Global Review were available at the entrance to the room and that it would also be posted on the 
WTO's Aid-for-Trade Website. 
44. Before closing, he informed that the next CTD dedicated meeting on Aid for Trade was 
scheduled for the morning of 2 April.  At th at meeting, a further update being given on the 
preparations for the Global Review and the Regiona l Development Banks would be invited to provide 
details on the state of play of their Aid-for-Trade review meetings.  The UNDP would also be invited 
to present its recent study on "Mainstreaming Tr ade in the PRSPs" (Poverty Reduction Strategy 
Papers). 
E. OTHER BUSINESS  
45. There were no items raised under "Other Business". 
46. The meeting was adjourned . 
 
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