RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/COMTD/AFT/M/6 
20 March 2008 
 (08-1268) 
Committee on Trade and Development 
Sixth Session on Aid for Trade  
 
 
 
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 25 FEBRUARY 2008 
 
Chairman:  H.E. Mr. Shree B.C. Servansing (Mauritius) 
 
 
A. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA .........................................................................................................1  
B. PROPOSED AID -FOR-TRADE ROADMAP FOR 2008 ........................................................................1  
- STATEMENT BY THE WTO DIRECTOR -GENERAL ...........................................................................1  
C. OTHER BUSINESS .........................................................................................................................6  
 
 
A. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA  
1. The draft agenda for the meeting as contained in Airgram WTO/AIR/3152 of 
14 February 2008 was adopted . 
B. PROPOSED AID -FOR-TRADE ROADMAP FOR 2008 
- STATEMENT BY THE WTO DIRECTOR -GENERAL  
2. The Chairman  said that he was of the view that  the Committee on Trade and Development 
(CTD) needed to continue to play a central role  in the Aid-for-Trade initiative and provide guidance 
on how the WTO could structure the future programme of work on this subject.  Last year's work on the Aid-for-Trade initiative had been very successful .  The WTO had played a large role in that 
success, not by trying to deliver or direct Aid for Trade, but by working hard to mobilize and catalyze 
the efforts of others – governments, regional organizations, donor agencies, development and 
financial institutions.  They needed to be engaged,  focussed and coordinated to achieve real progress 
in expanding trade capacity in developing countri es.  A key lesson he had drawn from last year's 
activities was that WTO Members needed to remain fu lly engaged in this initiative - and that a key 
instrument for remaining engaged was the CTD. 
3. He said there were a number of areas where the CTD could play a constructive role, 
especially as the initiative moved into the implementa tion phase.  In particular, the CTD could invite 
the relevant regional and multilatera l organizations to share their "calendar of events" for 2008 as 
soon as this was finalized.  The WTO had also fi nalized its roadmap for 2008, the broad outlines of 
which would be explained by the Director-General in his intervention at the present meeting.  Given 
that national leadership and ownership was so important, the CTD could have a session on 
Aid-for-Trade planning, priority setting and main streaming – seeing how the Enhanced Integrated 
Framework (EIF) could do even better what it was currently doing for least-developed countries (LDCs), whilst also looking into how other deve loping countries could be assisted, and how the 
growing need for regional planning should be tackled.  He stated that South-South cooperation was an 
important and fast-growing component of Aid for Trade, and that the CTD might consider asking 
countries to share their approach es, experiences and priorities.  More generally, the CTD should WT/COMTD/AFT/M/6 
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  remain a conveyor belt for information and ideas betw een what was happening in the field and what 
was happening in Geneva.  He suggested that as th e 2008 "roadmap" unfolded, the CTD should report 
back to Members as necessary.  The CTD would need to  play a role in the autumn in helping to shape 
the annual Aid-for-Trade debate.  He said that wh at he had presented was not an exhaustive list of 
activities, even though it was an ambitious one.  He  added that there was obviously a limit as to how 
much the CTD could achieve in one year and he looked forward to hearing Members' thoughts on the 
CTD's programme of work.  The Chair then asked the Director-General to outline his proposed Aid-
for-Trade Roadmap for 2008. 
4. The Director-General
 highlighted the overall success of th e Aid-for-Trade programme to date.  
He stated that the initiative continued to demons trate what could be accomplished through the WTO 
when focus was placed on the common interests of its Members.   
5. He recalled the important role the CTD had pl ayed in providing a forum for Members to 
maintain a continuous dialogue among themselves an d with partners regard ing the operationalization 
of the Aid-for-Trade initiative.  There were three main priorities articulated during the 
November 2007 Global Review on Aid for Trad e:  improving monitoring, moving on with 
implementation and strengthening de veloping-country ownership of th e initiative.  He explained how 
the WTO could move forward on these three issues in the coming months.  
6. With regard to monitoring, the Director-G eneral referred to the WTO's constructive 
partnership with the OECD, and the latter's role in establishing a monitoring mechanism to provide a 
solid foundation for future work.  Insofar as improve ments in measuring global flows were concerned, 
the Director-General reported that the OECD w ould be adding a new category to its Creditor 
Reporting System – trade related adjustment – to  provide a more precise tool for measuring the 
impact of Aid for Trade. 
7. Pointing out that the Aid-for-Trade initiative would only succeed if it produced tangible and 
measurable results, the Director-General suggested developing a basket of performance indicators to 
help assess trade capacity in developing countries.  Such a basket would give countries a clear 
objective and provide all parties involved with incentiv es to make greater efforts.  The involvement of 
the OECD, the World Bank and others was sought to assess a range of existing indicators to help assess trade capacity in developing countries, a t ool that would give countries clear objectives to aim 
for.  Discussion on possible options would take place during an Expert Symposium on Aid-for-Trade evaluation which would take place later this year. 
8. The second priority was the need to shift the fo cus from awareness raisi ng to implementation.  
To that end, he proposed that a limited number of  national and sub-regional Aid-for-Trade reviews be 
held in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and in Asia in 2008.  These reviews would be 
different from those held in 2007 in that they would have a greater focus on achieving results by 
advancing and monitoring the implementation of concrete national and sub-regional Aid-for-Trade 
plans. 
9. The Director-General outlined the proposed re views and said each would be structured in 
three parts:  assessing or "road-testing" Aid-for-Tra de plans, identifying pr iorities, and agreeing on 
how these plans and priorities should be implemente d.  The objective of the reviews would be two 
fold:  (i) to showcase how Aid-for-Trade strategies could progress and were progressing;  and, (ii) to 
create incentives for others to fo llow.  The reviews would be host ed by the participating national 
government or regional organization in coopera tion with lead donors and key regional and 
international agencies.  Meanwhile, the results w ould be profiled in the next Global Aid for Trade 
Review - proposed to be held in the first half of  2009.  The Director-General further encouraged 
countries and lead donors to consider if they were at a stage in their own Aid-for-Trade planning 
where they felt their initiatives would benefit from being "spotlighted".    WT/COMTD/AFT/M/6 
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  10. The Director-General suggested that in cases where countries wanted to harness Aid for 
Trade, but lacked a national plan and the capac ity to formulate one, the Enhanced Integrated 
Framework (EIF) could play a central role for LDC's.  The EIF was a country-driven mechanism which was aimed at helping countries to develop Aid -for-Trade plans.  It had been newly structured 
and newly funded so that development projects a nd plans could be mainstreamed into countries' 
development priorities.  Given its role, the EIF w ould be ideally placed to help the LDCs and it was 
the central platform for submitting funding needs to  donors, beyond the financing already available in 
the EIF's own Trust Fund.  He stressed the need to have the new EIF process operational as soon as 
possible and he added that it was also important to  find a creative response to the planning needs of 
non-LDCs and those regions not covered by the EIF.   Additionally, he expressed his hope that the 
Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) would focus its work specifically on project 
implementation.  
11. Concerning a third key message, the Director-Gen eral said that developing countries needed 
to be more actively and directly involved in Aid fo r Trade.  The importance of this involvement was 
emphasized given that the overarching objective of  the Aid-for-Trade initiative was to empower 
developing countries.  He was optimistic about de veloping countries being increasingly motivated to 
take the lead and reported that there was a growing list of countries involved in holding Aid-for-Trade 
events in order to mobilize both domestic constituenci es and international support.  The real key to 
ensuring developing-country ownership was to produ ce results, and this was all the more reason to 
keep up the momentum. 
12. The Director-General's final observation reinfor ced the importance of sticking to the current 
"bottom-up" Aid-for-Trade strategy.  As such, awareness of the initiative was raised through 
planning, cooperation and mobilization – not top down management.  The WTO needed to remain an advocate, a catalyst and a facilitator, but not a lead er on the initiative.  The latter role, as a leader, he 
noted, was a job for donors and development agencies , regional development banks  and, above all, the 
countries themselves.   
13. In conclusion, the Director-General said the journey in 2008 would be a success if progress 
could be made on the three main points articulated:  measuring trade capacity, moving on implementation, and getting developing countries more involved in the process.   
14. The representative of the European Communities
 stated that the EC's first priority was to 
increase the ownership of Aid for Trade by developi ng countries and, to that end, his delegation 
supported the efforts made by the Secretariat and by  the OECD to better involve beneficiary countries 
in monitoring the initiative.  He said the EC was r eady to contribute to the review of partner country 
questionnaires on Aid for Trade and to help ensure a high response rate by beneficiary countries.  The 
second priority was to organize selected national a nd sub-regional reviews on Aid for Trade, with a 
specific focus on the technical level,  prioritized by sector.  He added that technical reviews could also 
be used to identify and share best practices on im plementing Aid-for-Trade strategies.  Third, he 
endorsed the proposal to organize an Expert Symposium later in the year to help identify indicators to 
benchmark the progress made with building tr ade capacity.  Fourth, he welcomed the 
Director-General's suggestion that the next Global Review of Aid for Trade would not be held until 
the spring/summer of 2009, given the focus on impl ementation of the various Aid-for-Trade projects 
in the coming year.  He also expressed hope that th e EIF would be operationalized soon.  Lastly, the 
EC suggested that the Secretariat announce the next  CTD session on Aid for Trade well in advance in 
order to allow better participati on and preparation by Members.  
15. The representative of China  stated his appreciation for the efforts in promoting the 
Aid-for-Trade initiative and endorsed the idea of a br oader participation in the process by Members, 
international organizations and NGOs.  He cited the importance of maintaining the momentum and 
making the programme more operational so real benef its could be realized by developing countries.  
He also expressed support for regional reviews to iden tify priorities and to better meet the needs of WT/COMTD/AFT/M/6 
Page 4  
 
  developing countries.  Furthermore, he said that China, as a developing country, continued to face 
many challenges and that his country understood th e problems faced by countries at similar stages of 
economic development.  He also announced a donati on of US$200,000 by the Government of China 
to the Aid-for-Trade framework, noting that th e donation was a reflection of his Government's 
willingness to engage in the development efforts of the WTO. 
16. The representative of the United States
 said that his delegation hoped that the focus of work 
on Aid for Trade in 2008 would include:  mainstre aming trade in national development plans;  
broadening monitoring to include both donors and recipients;  finding practical and effective ways to 
monitor Aid for Trade (consistent with the competencies of the WTO which do not duplicate ongoing work in the broader development community) and, finally, incorporating the private sector in the 
Aid-for-Trade initiative.  She stres sed that there was an enormous potential represented by the private 
sector given its involvement in trade and its know ledge of what was necessary for countries to 
integrate into the world trading system.  Therefore,  it was important to engage the local private sector 
in the various national and sub-regi onal meetings on Aid for Trade.  
17. The representative of Norway
 recalled that his Government had launched an Action Plan on 
Aid for Trade the previous year and that the plan  had been presented at the Global Review on Aid for 
Trade.  He reported that additional financing had be en set aside for the Action Plan and that most of 
the increased financial support for the initiative w ould be disbursed throug h multilateral channels, 
with a particular emphasis on the EIF.   
18. He recalled that achieving a more coherent gl obal economic policy was one of the five core 
functions of the WTO, as defined by Article III. 5 of the Marrakech Agreement.  He said the 
Marrakech Declaration on the Contribution of the WTO to Achieving Greater Coherence in Global 
Economic Policymaking recognized policy inter-linkages, inter alia , between trade and development, 
and called for the WTO to develop its cooperation with the IMF and the World Bank, with the aim of 
each institution following consistent and mutually s upportive policies.  He also recalled that in the 
Director-General's report for 2007 on the execution of  the Coherence Mandate, released the previous 
week in document WT/TF/COH/S/13, Aid for Trad e had a prominent place.  He welcomed the 
inclusion of the Aid-for-Trade initiative in the C oherence Mandate, given that such an inclusion 
would give the initiative greater prominence.  He then noted that this was the right analytical point of departure for a discussion on the WTO's role in the futu re work on Aid for Trad e and stated that there 
was scope for fine-tuning the complementarities betw een the three organizations of the Coherence 
Mandate, as well as other stakeholde rs within the broader Aid-for-Trade  picture.  This was a process 
which should be taken forward as the WTO moved to wards the next Global Review on Aid for Trade 
in 2009. 
19. Norway welcomed the 2008 roadmap on Aid for Trade outlined by the Director-General.  
Regarding monitoring, he expressed support for focusi ng on the measurement of the impact of Aid for 
Trade.  Measuring the impact was difficult but esse ntial;  and if the link between input and impact 
could not be demonstrated, then the incentives fo r developing further Aid-for-Trade initiatives would 
be weakened.  His delegation also believed that the WTO should not act as a development agency and, thus, should not become involved in the impl ementation activities of Aid-for-Trade programmes.  
Norway, therefore, welcomed the Director-General 's focus on advocacy and monitoring in relation to 
all of the implementation-related activities.   
20. He underscored the importance of developing country ownership and the importance of 
anchoring Aid for Trade in national development plan s, recognizing, however, that this was first and 
foremost a national responsibility and would take time.   He agreed with the Di rector-General that the 
EIF must play a role in assisting LDC's in this important process.  Nevertheless, there were already some robust planning processes and development strate gies in place in some LDC Members, such as 
the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP).  Th e PRSPs provided the basis for assistance from the 
World Bank and the IMF as well as debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)  WT/COMTD/AFT/M/6 
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  initiative.  The PRSPs should be country-driven, co mprehensive in scope, pa rtnership-oriented, and 
participatory.  A country only needed to write a PRSP once every three years as changes could be made to the content of a PRSP using an Annual Progress Report.  A PRSP was also expected to contain clearly presented and costed priorities for m acroeconomic, structural, and social policies as 
well as appropriate targets, indicators and systems for monitoring and evaluating progress. 
21. He said he had raised the issue of PRSP's for two reasons:  the first was to illustrate that there 
were already structured planning processes in place in nearly 70 low-income countries.  The second 
was to underscore that PRSP's were endorsed by th e World Bank and the IMF Boards as the basis for 
concessional assistance from both institutions.  Th e World Bank and the IMF had a particular 
responsibility to assist in integrating trade into th e PRSPs.  In addition, the EIF could add to the 
process.  However, he said the international in stitutions should not wa it until the EIF was fully 
operational to start with the process.  He express ed optimism about having a fully operational EIF 
soon, and said that he saw the EIF as a channel th e Government of Norway could use in the provision 
of Aid-for-Trade financing.  
22. He believed that Aid for Trade would be useful in helping Members harness the benefits of 
the Doha Development Agenda results.  There had been some difficulties in accessing implementation 
assistance and that this had led to some misgivings  about the outcome of the Uruguay Round of trade 
negotiations.  This should be avoi ded in the Doha Round, and that he believed it was time to start 
thinking about how Aid for Trade could be used to  facilitate the implementation of a Doha outcome. 
23. The representative of Japan
 welcomed the clear guidance outlin ed by the Director-General in 
the 2008 roadmap.  In the context of Aid for Trade, he announced that Japan would host the 
TICAD IV (Tokyo International Conference on A frican Development) meeting in Yokohama during 
the month of May.  He said the Government of Jap an wanted to utilize the Aid-for-Trade initiatives to 
motivate discussion in the TICAD IV Conference.  Also, through the TIC AD chairmanship, Japan 
would like to promote the Aid-for-Trade initiative in cooperation with the WTO.  
24. The representative of Benin  commented that the roadmap was an entire programme in and of 
itself.  It was important to identify actions for 200 8.  He noted the importance of bringing Aid for 
Trade into the field because that  was where needs had to be identified and addressed before any 
results could be obtained.  This w as important at both the regional and sub-regional leve l.  He thanked 
the development partners for their contributions to the Aid-for-Trade process, in particular China for 
the announcement of its donation.  He highlighted  coordination as another important component and 
said that he hoped a series of contributions submitte d by the African Group would be considered and 
utilized in the assessment process.  In terms of follow-up actions and activities, he suggested that the 
Aid-for-Trade page on the WTO's website be updat ed regularly so developments, such as China's 
donation, would be readily known to Members.  Regarding the EIF, he stressed its importance 
because of the consideration it gave to specific country needs.  
25. The representative of Canada  said that his delegation agreed with the schedule proposed in 
the 2008 roadmap, and the role outlined for the WTO as it built on its capacity to facilitate and act as 
a catalyst for the process.  He encouraged the deve loping countries to show leadership in the initiative 
and expressed interest in the proposal to deve lop a basket of indicat ors to use in assessing 
Aid-for-Trade results.  This was a good example of how a partnership could be  developed between the 
WTO and the OECD.  Canada also welcomed the move towards a more focused, results-oriented, sub-regional approach for the regional reviews and would continue to focus on the EIF, as well as 
other multilateral initiatives aimed at assisting with the implementation of Aid for Trade.  Canada's 
bilateral activities would focus on actions at  the regional and sub-regional levels.  
26. The representative of Egypt
 agreed with the approach outlined in the 2008 roadmap on Aid 
for Trade.  He cited the need to concentrat e on the objective of increasing developing country 
ownership and the involvement of beneficiary countri es in the monitoring of Aid for Trade.  He was WT/COMTD/AFT/M/6 
Page 6  
 
  also in favour of using the CTD to exchange and gather ideas from Members on how to proceed with 
the implementation of the roadmap. 
27. The Director-General
 thanked the Chinese delegation for its  financial contribution, noting the 
importance of the South-South cooperation it symbolized.  Regarding Norway's comments on the PRSPs, the Director-General agreed that nationa l plans must be recognized by international 
institutions.  However, he believed that in the PR SPs the trade capacity element was still very weak.  
If the principle of national ownership was adhered to , it was for the developing countries - and not for 
the World Bank or the IMF - to take-on the respons ibility of ensuring that enhancing trade capacity 
was duly reflected in the PRSPs.  In response to the request by the repr esentative of Benin, the 
Director-General said that the WTO's website pa ge on Aid for Trade would be updated regularly, 
most immediately by including in it the 2008 roadmap. 
28. The Chairman
 thanked all the participants for their interventions which had provided useful 
ideas on how to move forward with the Aid-for-Trade initiative and the role of the CTD in this area in 
2008. 
C. OTHER BUSINESS  
29. There were no items raised under "Other Business". 
30. The meeting was adjourned . 
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