RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/COMTD/AFT/M/5 
13 February 2008 
 (08-0634) 
Committee on Trade and Development 
Fifth Session on Aid for Trade  
 
 
NOTE ON THE MEETIN G OF 16 NOVEMBER 2007 
 
Chairman:  H.E. Mr. Shree B.C. Servansing (Mauritius) 
  
A.
 ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA .........................................................................................................1  
B. SUMMARY OF AID FOR TRADE ACTIVITIES IN 2007 .....................................................................1  
- STATEMENT BY THE WTO DEPUTY DIRECTOR -GENERAL .............................................................1  
C. GLOBAL AID FOR TRADE FLOWS AND RESU LTS OF DONOR AND PARTNER COUNTRY 
SURVEYS ............................................................................................................................... .......3  
- PRESENTATION BY THE ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC COOPERATION AND 
DEVELOPMENT (OECD )................................................................................................................3  
D. SUMMARY OF THE REGIONAL REVIEWS ON AID FOR TRADE ........................................................5  
- PRESENTATION BY THE INTER -AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (IADB ) ....................................5  
- PRESENTATION BY THE AS IAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (ADB)........................................................5  
- PRESENTATION BY THE AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (AFDB ) AND THE UNITED 
NATIONS ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR AFRICA (UNECA )............................................................5  
E. OTHER BUSINESS .......................................................................................................................17  
 
 
A. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA  
1. The draft agenda for the meeting as contained in Airgram WTO/AIR/3108 of 
1 November 2007 was adopted . 
B. SUMMARY OF AID FOR TRADE ACTIVITIES IN 2007 
- STATEMENT BY THE WTO DEPUTY DIRECTOR -GENERAL  
2. The Chairman  said that he had asked Deputy Director-General Valentine Rugwabiza to 
provide the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD) with a brief summary of the Aid for Trade 
work programme in 2007, and explain how the vari ous pieces would come together at the high level 
meeting. 
3. The Deputy Director-General  said that one of the many positive features of the Aid for Trade 
initiative was the way it had brought all of the intern ational organizations together to work towards a 
common goal.  It was an example of coherence in action and served as a model for how the 
international system could deliver results.   WT/COMTD/AFT/M/5 
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  4. The Aid for Trade work programme in 2007 had been a long, round-the-world journey to 
mobilize more and better Aid for Trade and she was convinced that the journey had been worth it.  
She recalled that in 2006 the Director-General had outlined a plan for monitoring Aid for Trade based 
on the Task Force recommendations.  It involved global monitoring of financial flows, self assessments by partner and donor countries, thre e high-level regional meetings, and a series of 
"periodic reviews" in the CTD.  These various thr eads would be woven together in an annual Aid for 
Trade debate in the General Council.  
5. She said that the Organisation for Econom ic Cooperation and De velopment (OECD) 
secretariat would present and discuss the findings of the joint WTO/OECD global report entitled Aid 
for Trade at a Glance 2007.   The report gave a comprehensive a nd detailed picture of Aid for Trade 
flows from 2002 to 2005, the last year for which reporting data was available and the year prior to the 
Gleneagles and Hong Kong commitments.  She believe d that the report provided a solid baseline from 
which to measure progress over future years. 
6. The WTO/OECD report also included an analys is of the Aid for Trade self assessments – 
30 from donor countries, eight from recipients and te n from international agencies.  These results 
were interesting and important, and she urged delegations to read them.  She noted that the process of 
arriving at these results was just as important as it had the effect of encouraging national administrations, and trade, development and finance ministries to start a dialogue about Aid for Trade, 
so as to reflect on their actions and goals, and to ask  themselves if they could do better.  She believed 
these self assessments provided an important tool fo r advancing Aid for Trade, which could be refined 
and expanded, especially for partner countries, in 2008. 
7. She informed the Committee that the representa tives of the three regional development banks 
and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), who played central roles in organizing the regional reviews, would also present and discuss their respective reports and recommendations at the present meeting.  Although the three regional review meetings were very 
different – reflecting the different circumstances, pers pectives and priorities of the regions – all shared 
some common themes, namely:  the importance of  country ownership, the value of regional 
approaches, the need to focus on a few priorities, strong and effective public-p rivate partnerships and 
an understanding that while Aid for Trade was a comp lement to trade liberalization it could not be a 
substitute, either to trade opening or to the right domestic policies. 
8. She was of the view that discussions in the CTD would help to inform the Global Aid for 
Trade Review, which marked the conclusion of the 2007 work programme.  The objectives of the 
Global Aid for Trade Review were three-fold:  (i ) to take stock of what  was happening on Aid for 
Trade to identify what should happen next;  and (i i) to improve monitoring and evaluation.  The 
Review would begin on Monday, 19 November 2007  with a day-long technical-level meeting which 
would focus on key issues – such as improving monitoring and evaluation, mainstreaming trade, regional approaches, and public-pri vate partnership.  All dele gations – including capital-based 
officials – were encouraged to take part in these  discussions.  The high-level segment would begin on 
Tuesday, 20 November 2007 – with interventions by Mi nisters, heads of agenci es and senior officials, 
as well as by WTO delegations – and would conc lude on Wednesday, 21 November 2007 with the 
Aid for Trade debate in the General Council.  She noted that all of these details, including the 
expected questions to be considered by each session  were explained in the annotated agenda which 
was available on the WTO website, as well as in  hard copies in the back of the room. 
9. She recalled that the purpose of this exercise was not to undertake monitoring for the sake of 
monitoring.  It was to use monitoring to create incentives – to honour Aid for Trade commitments, meet Aid for Trade needs, improve Aid for Trade effectiveness, and reinforce mutual accountability.   WT/COMTD/AFT/M/5 
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  10. She added that in the week of 19 November 2007, the WTO would host Ministers, donors, 
heads of regional and multilateral organizations to  answer one question – how to expand the trade 
capacity of developing countries.  All the parti es involved in the Aid fo r Trade work programme 
would have to stay focussed on that fundamental goal, as it was the basic benchmark against which 
success – or failure – would be measured. 
C. GLOBAL AID FOR TRADE FLOWS AND RESULTS OF DONOR AND PARTNER COUNTRY SURVEYS  
- PRESENTATION BY THE ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC COOPERATION AND 
DEVELOPMENT (OECD ) 
11. The Chairman  said that the OECD Secretariat had al so been asked to present the joint 
WTO/OECD Report Aid for Trade at a Glance 2007 which provided a comprehensive analysis of 
trade-related aid flows between 2002 and 2005, as we ll as a summary of the results of the donor-and 
partner-country, self-assessments.  The Executive Summa ry of the report was available at the entrance 
to the room, while the full Report – almost 100 pag es of analysis and 300 pages of appendices – could 
be downloaded from the WTO's website at ww w.wto.org and from the OECD's website at 
www.oecd.org/dac/trade/aft.  Bound copies of the Report would also be distributed during the Global 
Review. 
12. The representative of the OECD  said that the objectives of monitoring  were to enhance 
transparency and dialogue, create incentives to im prove aid effectiveness, learn from successes and 
failures, and establish a clear link between  partners' demands and donors' responses. 
13. She said that three tiers were envisaged in the m onitoring of Aid for Trade:  first, tracking Aid 
for Trade flows, which was a quantitative measur ement;  second, donor self-assessments to obtain 
both a quantitative and qualitative measurement;  a nd third, in-country self-assessments, also 
quantitatively and qualitatively.   
14. Regarding measuring Aid for Trade flows, she explained that the OECD's report tried to 
establish baseline figures.  In order to do this, the best instrument available was the OECD Creditor 
Reporting System (CRS).  The advantage of the CRS was that it was an existing database of Official 
Development Assistance (ODA) commitments and dis bursements, with comparable data across time 
and countries, that would enable the identifica tion of global trends, including additionality. 
15. However, the problem was that there was an imperfect match between the CRS categories of 
ODA and the Task Force definition of Aid for Trade.  Therefore, proxies needed to be used.  But, if 
very broad categories of the CRS were used, this c ould result in overestimation of Aid for Trade.  In 
addition, there were some Aid for Trade categorie s not covered by the CRS which could result in 
underestimation.  For these reasons, real Aid for Tr ade numbers probably did not exist and could vary 
depending on whether it was being reported by donors or  partner countries.  She explained, therefore, 
that Aid for Trade was a concept not a figure.  
16. She said that examining trends in the CRS ai d categories more closely related to Aid for 
Trade, which would be referred to simply as Aid fo r Trade, resulted in a clear long-term decline of 
these categories as a share of total ODA.  This trend ha d been particularly strong since the end of the 
eighties.  Also, in the category of Aid for Trade po licy regulations, some related to multilateral trade 
negotiations, such as the Uruguay Round in the 198 0s and the launching of the Doha Development 
Agenda in 2001. 
17. Regarding Aid for Trade flows by donor countries, Japan was the largest donor since it 
provided large quantities of ODA for economic infrastructure.  Other large donors were the Asian WT/COMTD/AFT/M/5 
Page 4  
 
  Development Fund, the African Development Fund and the World Bank's International Development 
Association (IDA). 
18. Regarding Aid for Trade by categories, infrastru cture was the largest and was still growing.  
In terms of recipients, most of the largest recipi ents were in Asia, including Viet Nam, Indonesia, 
India and China.  This was possibly as a result of ODA provided for infrastructure. 
19. Looking at the data according to the income le vel of the recipient, the low-income countries 
received the largest share of trade-related ODA.  This could be explained either because India and 
Viet Nam, two of the largest recipients, were lo w-income countries or because low-income countries 
were the most in need of ODA.  
20. It was also interesting to look at the data from the point of view of what type of ODA was 
received by countries in different income levels.  This showed that the share of ODA provided for 
productive capacity building increased at the higher income  levels.  This also applied to aid in trade 
policy regulation. 
21. For next year's report, the OECD woul d improve on the data provided regarding 
disbursements, since the current data mostly cove red pledges.  Another improvement would concern 
the availability of data to begin tracking the H ong Kong and Gleneagles commitments;  this would 
enable additionality to be measured.  Better data could also improve the type of analysis that could be 
made. 
22. Regarding ODA and Aid for Trade projections for 2010, she said that ODA would increase to 
a level of around US$130 billion by 2010.  The OECD projected that the share of Aid for Trade in 
ODA would remain stable, thus resulting in an ab solute increase for Aid for Trade as ODA also 
increased.  
23. Another OECD representative said that Aid for Trade was more than just numbers; it was also 
about delivering aid more effectively and providing mo re of it.  This was why qualitative information 
was an important part of the Aid for Trade mon itoring process.  One of the objectives of eliciting 
qualitative information was to encourage accountability  and reflection and to generate a governmental 
reflection process, both in donor and partner c ountries, on Aid for Trade and trade development 
strategies, as well as a dialogue between donors, pa rtners and stakeholders.  Secondly, the OECD 
wanted to elicit comparative data on the quality of aid delivery and, in the future, the outcomes and 
impact of aid.  This would allow the agenci es involved to see what was working and where 
improvements were needed.  Qualitative information c ould also be used to refine the measurement of 
Aid-for-Trade flows and create vertical comparability across time. 
24. He said that the main instrument to obtain the qualitative data was the donor-and partner- 
country questionnaires sent out by the WTO and OECD secretariats.  These questionnaires were 
organized around four main themes entitled:  What is your Aid for Trade strategy?  How much Aid 
for Trade do you provide or receive?  How do you implement your Aid for Trade strategy?  and Do you participate in mutual accountability arrangements? 
25. Results at year one were encouraging and this le d to several conclusions.  First, Aid for Trade 
volumes were rising, but their share in sector aid continued to decline.  Second, Aid for Trade was being prioritised in donor and partner strategies.  Third, awareness of regional constraints was high, 
but challenges remained on how to address them.  F ourth, many partner countries had identified key 
constraints and costed their strategies, but were uncertain about which financing needs would be met 
by ODA.  Fifth, all agreed with the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, but implementing aid 
effectiveness principles remained challenging, partic ularly in terms of management for results and 
mutual accountability.  WT/COMTD/AFT/M/5 
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  26. The questionnaire responses had also revealed th ree priority areas for improvement.  Firstly, 
that much stronger engagement of partner count ries was necessary.  This would involve better 
communication and planning on the part of the OECD  and WTO, more in-depth consultation with the 
partner countries and making sure that partner c ountries would benefit directly from the process of 
answering the questionnaire.  Secondly, the spotlight effect should be strengthened.  This would mean 
getting more information on best practices and more comparable data across donors and partner 
countries, and better integrating th e regional dimension.  Thirdly, the next challenge would be to 
address evaluation issues and the impact of th e different programmes on trade performance. 
D. SUMMARY OF THE REGIONAL REVIEWS ON AID FOR TRADE  
- PRESENTATION BY THE INTER -AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (IADB ) 
- PRESENTATION BY THE AS IAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (ADB) 
- PRESENTATION BY THE AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (AFDB ) AND THE UNITED 
NATIONS ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR AFRICA (UNECA ) 
27. The Chairman  said the three regional Aid for Trade reviews held in September and early 
October 2007 had generated a great deal of interest.  He had, therefore, invited representatives from 
the relevant regional organizations – the Inte r-American Development Bank (IADB), the Asian 
Development Bank (ADB), the African Developm ent Bank (AfDB) and from the United Nations 
Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) – to pr esent detailed reports of the three regional 
meetings.   
28. The representative of the IADB  said the regional meeting for Latin America and the 
Caribbean was held in Lima on 13 to 14 Septembe r 2007 and had been jointly organized by the WTO 
and the IADB under the auspices of the Peruvian Government and the World Bank.  She said there 
had been widespread participation from all the countries in the region, including some 
300 participants from the region a nd elsewhere, the President of Peru, 13 Ministers of Trade and 
Finance, international organizations, senior govern ment officials, private sector representatives and 
donor agencies.   
29. The main objectives of the regional review had been to highlight the central importance of 
trade for development policies and to identify the main  capacity gaps that afflicted the area, to stress 
the importance of conceiving and implementing integr ated strategies, both nationally and regionally.  
Other aims included having more effective financi ng ensuring political commitments for the future 
agenda.  During the meeting, there had been an open dialog on the importance of Aid for Trade.  The meeting continued with parallel sessions whic h took up sub-regional items, in particular 
South America, Central America and the Caribbean.  On the second day, a Ministerial roundtable had 
been held on priorities and follow-up.  In addition,  parallel meetings had b een conducted to examine 
the role of the private sector, the importance of m onitoring and evaluation, and the challenges relating 
to sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures in Central America.   
30. There had been consensus at the meeting re garding the importance of the Aid-for-Trade 
initiative and the need of countries to give recognition to the challenges faced by the region in an even 
more competitive world economy.  It was also recognized that globalization not only changed the dynamics of development, but also created fu rther opportunities and put pressure on countries to 
network quickly and effectively.  This created  a major challenge for the Latin-American and 
Caribbean regions where costs of operations were ofte n higher than in other regions due to the lack of 
physical infrastructure, institutional wea knesses and deficient regulatory structures.  WT/COMTD/AFT/M/5 
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  31. Participants at the regional, while recognizing  that trade investment and integration were 
important, had agreed that trade could not be but one element in a development strategy.  To take 
advantage of its benefits, it was necessary to adop t complementary national policies.  Particular 
emphasis was placed on policies linked to the distribution sector.  
32. Participants in the review had also discussed four issues of horizontal common interest.  The 
first concerned country ownershi p and mainstreaming trade into national development strategies, 
emphasizing the need for improved coordination amongst national protagonists and the need to 
achieve consensus and support for trade liberaliza tion.  The second was on regional integration and 
here participants had agreed that Latin-A merican and Caribbean countries had wide-ranging 
experience with regional agreements which had c ontributed to increased cross-border cooperation.  
However, it had also been agreed that there was still room to strengthen cross-border cooperation, in 
particular coordination of policies, definition of priorities and improved fina ncing.  Nevertheless, 
participants had stressed that regional initiatives mu st be conceived as complementary to national and 
local policies and they should not lose sight of the specificity of each country or group of countries.  Therefore, a one size fits all solution did not exist.   Thirdly, participants had discussed the priorities 
for the region and had agreed that priority sh ould be given to four main areas, namely:  
(i) trade-related infrastructure and regional public goods;  (ii) trade financing and small-to-medium 
enterprise (SME) export development;  (iii) trad e facilitation and export diversification;  and 
(iv) strengthening joint ventures between the public  and private sector.  More recognition had been 
given in the Latin-American and Caribbean regions  to the specialized technical know-how of the 
private sector and the need to bring the private sector  into the application of public policy.  Aid for 
Trade should be used to strengthen those aspects of the private sector which could work jointly with 
governments.  Private sector participants had also identified infrastructure and education as the main 
regional weaknesses which prevented those countries from benefiting from trade opportunities.  Participants had discussed the need for additiona l effective financing, including leverage for 
development aid and multilateral loans.  Since most  of the Latin American and Caribbean countries 
had limited access to concessional loans or donor gran ts, participants had agreed that non-commercial 
loans and capital investment were required to enhan ce capacity and infrastructure.  Thus, there was a 
need to develop innovative financial instruments, incl uding at the regional level.  The availability of 
funds for the financing of regional publ ic sector goods was also important.   
33. It had also been agreed that the Latin American and Caribbean region had specific 
requirements for Aid for Trade.  Within the regi on trade requirements and national needs varied 
widely which highlighted the need to have a wide range of solutions adapted to the differing needs, 
and also the need for donor and international agen cy response to be demand driven.  It was equally 
stressed by the participants that countries in the region had already made significant efforts to identify 
and attach priority to their needs, and that the ch allenge now was to work on the basis of what already 
existed.  Accordingly, there was a need to upda te and improve existing diagnostic tools and identify 
finance sources to promote specific projects.  
34. At the review meeting there had also been th ree sessions which looked into each of the three 
sub-regions, with discussions based on specific items .  For example, in the South America session, 
participants had examined the Peruvian experience and had looked at national development strategies 
and how trade could be better integrated into the development agenda.  The Caribbean session 
focused on regional strategies, using the Organization E astern Caribbean States as a test case.  Finally, 
in the Central America and Mexico session, participants  had analysed the role of the private sector as 
prime actor in trade integration and its role as recipient and provider of Aid for Trade.   
35. Many recommendations had been adopted during the regional review, three of which included 
the following:  first, that existing action plans at the national and regional le vel should be updated in 
order to take on priorities, including setting out specific plans of action with the identification of 
concrete financial resources for their implementation.  Second, a support network for Aid for Trade  WT/COMTD/AFT/M/5 
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  should be established which would incl ude all relevant participants ( public, private, national, regional 
and international) to assist count ries in updating and applying the pl ans of action.  And third, the 
financing of priority, political projects on the b asis of existing funds and new regional sources.   
36. Participants had also agreed that a roadmap and timetable should be drawn up, to monitor 
progress on the Aid-for-Trade initiative.  This woul d include a second regional review conference to 
take stock of progress.  The IADB attached great  importance to the Aid-for-Trade initiative and was 
committed to continue supporting countries in the Latin-American and Caribbean regions in their 
efforts in this regard.   
37. The representative of the ADB  presented an overview of the Asian Regional review which 
took place in Manila on 19 to 20 September 2007.  He said that the Asian regional review essentially 
had the same objectives as the other two reviews and had had around 400 par ticipants, including two 
Heads of State, the Philippine President and the Prime Minister of Tonga, and ten Ministers of 
Finance and Trade.  The discussions were organize d around a set of plenary meetings with several 
breakout sessions.  One of the most powerful messag es that had come out of the Manila event was 
that the Asia-Pacific region had indeed prospere d during this era of globalization and greater 
regionalization.  However, there remained two faces of the Asia-Pacific region.  One was composed 
of the highly successful Asian economies: the As ian Tiger economies, India and China.  These 
economies taken together accounted for 21 per cent of world trade today, up from 7 per cent in 1980.  
However, the bulk of the region - 37 economies - accounted only for 3 per cent of world trade.  He said the facts underlying successful economies as we ll as those underlying underperformance came 
out in the review.  Regarding underperformance, issues of landlockedness, isolation, fragmented 
markets, post-conflict environments, weak trade capacity and policy gaps contributed to the poor 
situation of an important number of Asian and P acific economies.  Indeed, figures on trade and trade 
processing times suggested that the underperformi ng Asian and Pacific economies were much worse 
off than expected.  However, th e good news from Asia was that India, China, Korea, and others, 
offered a number of policy lessons on how Aid for Trade could be operationalized.  He said the other 
important idea that came out of the review was that more Aid for Trade, along with development 
strategies, good policies, investment in infrastruct ure and investment in regional cooperation, could 
only help underperforming Asian and Pacific countries. 
38. In the breakout sessions, participants had looked at very specific examples to narrow down 
what worked and what needed to be improved for Aid for Trade to be successful in the Asia-Pacific 
region. One example of development projects that had worked concerned the Greater Mekong 
Subregion (GMS) consisting of Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, as well as parts of Thailand 
and China.  He said that this region 15 to 20 years ago had made little progress  and had been 
dismissed as one with little chance of success.  Today, the region exported US$153 billion.  This 
achievement resulted from an integrated programme  which embodied the best elements in Aid for 
Trade and included support for infrastructure as well as capacity building.  However, this region only 
accounted for a combined share of world trade of just  1.5 per cent, suggesting that considerable room 
remained for investment and trade-related developm ent assistance.  Participants in the GMS breakout 
session had identified several areas where further improvements would reduce the costs of doing business, increase the predictability of the policy environment and help increase private sector 
investment.  They included:  physical infrastructur e, trade facilitation, institutional capacity for trade 
policy and analysis, sanitary and phytosanitary meas ures, tariff and non-tariff barriers, and regulatory 
constraints on the private sector.  These needed to be addressed in order for the GMS to sustain its 
participation in the global economy.  He said the lending pipeline of projects proposed for ADB 
support under the GMS Program—totalling over US$2 billion for the 2008–2010 period—supported 
trade-related infrastructure and capacity-developm ent.  The GMS Program also offered several 
platforms and agreements upon which new assist ance could be built, such as the recent GMS 
Cross-Border Transport Agreement and the Strategi c Framework for Action on Trade Facilitation and 
Investment.  In addition, the GMS Program had estab lished effective private-public partnerships, such WT/COMTD/AFT/M/5 
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  as the US$1.25 billion Nam Theun 2 hydropower pr oject, which could serve as models for tapping 
vast private-sector potential.  There was broad c onsensus at the review meeting that Aid for Trade 
funding would help GMS countries leverage prog ress and their own comparative advantages in 
different areas of trade as they continued to integrate into the global economy.   
39. A second breakout session had focused on South As ia.  In comparison to East Asia, the 
South Asia region had underperformed.  Historica lly, South Asia had low volumes of regional and 
global trade.  It also had restrictive trade polici es and problems with infrastructure.  However, there 
had been positive spill over effects from the growth of  East Asia and the gradual integration of India 
and China into global markets.  Labour intensive manufactures in South Asia had been increasing as 
had information technology exports.  However, there re mained a large agenda of needs that had to be 
addressed, including access to finance, developi ng export competitiveness in non-traditional 
industries and dealing with regulatory and customs ba rriers.  Participants id entified large funding gaps 
that had to be filled to make this sub-region a success and to support it on the road to sustainable 
development.   
40. At another breakout session, the Philippines had been an interesting example of a country that 
had attempted to mainstream trade into its na tional development strategy.  The Philippines had 
witnessed a shift away from agriculture into manufactu ring.  However, this had a limited effect on 
unemployment and poverty reduction.  The Phil ippines breakout session had identified areas where 
Aid for Trade could help, including:  upgrading worker skills, improving competitiveness of local 
firms, increasing support systems and entrepreneur ial skills for SMEs, building capacity for standards 
compliance and export certification and supporting  the ongoing reform agenda.  The Philippines 
Finance Minister had noted at the conference that  the Philippines aimed to raise infrastructure 
spending to 4.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 2.5 per cent, stressing the significant need for better water, power facilities, and roads.  The Minister had also highlighted steps that had 
been taken to further mainstream trad e into national development strategy. 
41. In the Pacific breakout session, participants ha d examined the Pacific Plan, endorsed in 2005 
by 16 island countries and supported by ADB, which guided assistance to the region and provided a 
platform for boosting trade-related assistance.  Th e Pacific Plan emphasised the development of the 
region's small and under-financed private sector, wh ile the ADB's Pacific St rategy brought regional 
cooperation and integration to the fore as the route to  faster development.  The remote island nations 
of the Pacific were constrained by the difficulties of transport, had poor economies of scale, weak private sectors and limited government capacity for reform and policy making.  He reported that 
representatives of the Pacific at the Manila review  meeting included the Tongan Prime Minister, the 
Samoan Minister of Finance and the Solomon Isla nds Minister for Foreign Affairs.  They had 
highlighted the areas where Aid for Trade funding could help, including infrastructure, agriculture, tourism and human res ources development.  
42. The last region that had been examined was the Central Asian Republics.  Difficulties in 
linking to international markets in small, landl ocked Central Asian economies had been highlighted 
by several participants at the conference.  Constr aints such as high trade co sts, cumbersome customs 
procedures and fragmented infrastructure were am ong the challenges faced by these economies.  To 
help overcome these barriers, the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program 
had been established in 1997.  It had focused la rgely on financing infrastructure projects and 
improving the region's policy environment in trans port, energy, trade policy and trade facilitation.  
Spanning nearly 4,000 kilometers and grouping  together Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, the People's 
Republic of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic , Mongolia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, it was a 
powerful platform for marshalling financial res ources, with combined assistance from multilateral 
institutions totalling US$2.3 billio n for 2006–2008 covering 42 projects.  The CAREC was also an 
alliance of multilateral institutions comprising the ADB, the European Bank for Reconstruction and  WT/COMTD/AFT/M/5 
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  Development, the International Monetary Fund, the Islamic Development Bank, the United Nations 
Development Programme, and the World Bank. 
43. Several common themes had become evident from the four plenary sessions and three 
breakout sessions.  These were: 
• Regional Cooperation and Integra tion (RCI):  RCI complemented Aid for Trade and had been 
singled out by most participants at the Manila review meeting as an integral part of the 
initiative, and one that could help guide funding priorities.  
• Cross-border infrastructure:  better roads, railways, ports, and other infrastructure that was 
cost effective in helping speed the movement  of goods across borders were recognized as 
fundamental to outward-oriented development in  the Asia-Pacific region.  The cost of new 
infrastructure was cited in particular as a significant obstacle for landlocked and 
least-developed countries.  
• Trade facilitation:  conference participants rep eatedly stressed the need for further assistance 
to countries in their efforts at trade facilita tion, through simplificati on and harmonization of 
international trade procedures.  
• Trade finance:  many banks and non-bank fina ncial institutions that provided trade finance 
were forced to raise fees, reduce country or bank lending limits and shorten loan maturities 
after the Asian financial crisis.  This was an area in which private-sector participation in Aid 
for Trade could be particularly valuable.  Proj ects that enhanced trade finance, such as the 
ADB's Trade Finance Facilitation Program, w ould benefit from additional Aid for Trade 
funding.  
• Monitoring and transparency:  throughout the co nference, participants had regularly called for 
close adherence to the principles of the Paris Declaration—harmonization of donor procedures, mutual accountability and alignmen t to donor partnerships—under the Aid for 
Trade initiative.  
44. In their closing remarks, the two conference co-chairs had outlined some major conclusions 
from the proceedings: 
• The success stories in Asia and the Pacific s howed the importance of outward-oriented trade 
and investment policies, as well as public-private  partnerships, as being an integral part of 
national development strategies.  
• Countries and regions had to focus on what mattered most to increasing trade — e.g. regional 
cooperation, infrastructure, trade facilitation and trade finance - and the areas that could 
deliver the biggest return on investment.  
• It was clear that an appropriate Aid for Trade strategy in Asia and the Pacific must be tailored 
to meet the specific needs of diverse developing countries. 
• There was a clear need for donors to follow through on their Hong Kong, China and broader 
Gleneagles commitments and provide additionalit y for Aid for Trade programmes in line with 
the Paris Declaration Principles.  
• A common theme of the Manila conference was cooperation, coordination, and coherence. 
• The Aid for Trade initiative was in fact "Aid  for Trade for Development" and not Aid for 
Trade per se .  It must be firmly grounded in  the region's development agenda. WT/COMTD/AFT/M/5 
Page 10  
 
  45. He said that building on the Manila event, s uggestions for moving the Aid for Trade initiative 
forward into 2008 and beyond included a series of actions that would better define and identify trade-related needs and requirements in Asia and the Pacific, with the aim of producing a proposal on 
how to implement Aid for Trade across the region.  Th e first of these suggestions was to form a small 
technical working group in early 2008 consisting of senior technical-level repr esentatives of recipient 
countries, bilateral donors, and regi onal and multilateral institutions.  The main tasks of this group 
would be to synthesize sub-regional/country needs and priorities, identify on-going assistance 
programmes, and develop an integrated approach th at would effectively operationalize Aid for Trade 
for the medium term in Asia and the Pacific.  The second suggestion was that a succinct, regional 
proposal would be crafted by the regional technical working group with the aim of providing a 
practical and pragmatic framework for sub-regions and countries to operationalize Aid for Trade.  The 
proposal would synthesize specific Aid for Trade n eeds, objectives, activities, and actors.  It would 
also include an implementation schedule, define financing needs and structure a monitoring framework based on the Paris Princi ples.  The third suggestion was to produce a study in 2009 that 
would analyse trade performance among countries represen ting the two faces of Asia and the Pacific.  
The goal of the study would be to analyse and defi ne the lessons learned about what had made trade-
related development assist ance work for successful ec onomies in the region.  This study could also be 
of use to other regions in the developing world.  
46. The representative of UNECA
 reported on the Africa regional Aid for Trade review – 
co-hosted by the WTO, UNECA, AfDB and the Ta nzanian Government – held in Dar es Salaam, 
Tanzania on 1-2 October 2007.  Over 450 particip ants took part in the discussions, including 
34 ministers of finance and trade, key donors, international agencies and the private sector. 
47. He said that Africa's integration into th e global economy was seen as a central objective for 
the continent.  While increased trade, investment, and economic growth was not the only answer to 
Africa's development challenge, it was an indispen sable part of the solution if countries were to 
generate the resources they needed to raise living standards, reduce poverty, and advance their social 
priorities.  The small size of national and ev en sub-regional markets made African countries 
particularly dependent on international trade for economic growth.  The successful conclusion of the 
Doha Round – with development as a central pillar – was seen as critical to opening up new trade 
opportunities in Africa and abroad.  
48. The participants in the African regional review  had also agreed that while trade opening was 
indispensable to Africa's development, it was not sufficient.  Globalized production networks, 
expanded supply chains, just-in-time delivery models , and rising international standards placed a new 
premium on strengthening supply-side capacity, redu cing trade "costs" and improving connectivity to 
markets, as well as liberalizing trade.  The point was made that while Africa's firms could be internationally competitive, Africa's economic sy stems often were not, making it harder to export 
reliably, efficiently and competitively into global markets.  Adverse geography was often 
compounded by fragmented infrastructure, inefficien t institutions, over regulation, unreliable supply 
chains and a weak services sector.  Studies showed that these "internal barriers" were more significant obstacles to export growth in Africa than "external barriers" such as tariffs.   
49. From the discussions by the participants, it wa s clear that African c ountries needed access to 
the modern "trade infrastructure" that increasingl y drives globalization:  transport corridors and 
information systems to connect exporters to worl d markets;  modern customs facilities to move 
products rapidly and efficiently across borders;  testi ng labs to ensure that exports meet international 
standards;  financial "safety nets" to ease concerns  about economic adjustment;  and the expertise and 
institutions needed to manage a complex global trading system.  Also, regional approaches were 
particularly important in the African context gi ven the geographic and structural barriers that 
exporters had to overcome.  The challenge was to link multilateral,  regional, and bilateral trade 
opening initiatives with comprehensive trade capac ity-building strategies, using Aid for Trade as a  WT/COMTD/AFT/M/5 
 Page 11 
 
 
  catalyst.  It was also clear that political leadership  - and a long-term commitment to export-led growth 
– was essential to making this happen.  Harnes sing globalization for development ultimately 
depended on African countries themselves. Nevert heless, at the same time, the international 
community could – and should – play a supporting ro le in helping African countries achieve their 
trade objectives.  Donors needed to follow through on commitments made at Monterrey, Gleneagles, 
Hong Kong and elsewhere to significantly scale-up deve lopment assistance and to delivering it more 
effectively, as agreed in the Paris Declaration.   
50. A central theme of the conference had been th at regional integration and capacity building 
had been critical to Africa's trade growth.  For this reason, three regional breakout sessions had been 
held.  These sessions looked at the unique challenges facing three sub-regions – East and Southern 
Africa, West and Central Africa, and North Africa – with a particular focus on the specific regional 
and transnational dimension of trade capacity build ing.  Discussion centred on "case studies" prepared 
and presented by the relevant Regional Economic  Communities (RECs) – the Common Market for 
Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Sout hern African Development Community (SADC), 
the East African Community (EAC), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), 
the Economic Community of Central African Stat es (ECCAS) and the Union du Maghreb Arabe 
(UMA) – which had been developed in close consulta tion with relevant stakeholders.  The discussion 
underscored the extent to which supply-side constr aints in Africa were regional or cross-border in 
nature, not least because of the continent's many small, fragmented and la ndlocked economies.  The 
discussions also highlighted the benefits of re gional infrastructure and capacity projects, the 
importance of focussing on key structural constraint s and policy bottlenecks and the need to improve 
regional planning, coordination and financing mechanisms.   
51. The regional breakout session on West and Central Africa had identified the following issues:  
first, that the high trade costs, weak institutions and fragmented infrastructure were key obstacles for 
growth and development;  second, the region had on -going liberalization and integration initiatives 
that needed to be complemented by national a nd regional capacity building, including in the New 
Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) contex t;  and third, since the investment climate in 
Africa was not optimal for business, dialogue was n eeded between the government and the private 
sector. 
52. Participants had identified the following key Aid for Trade priorities in West and Central 
Africa.  First, human and institutional capacity bui lding including of RECs.  Second, infrastructure 
development, especially regarding transport and utiliti es.  Third, assistance with adjustment costs of 
liberalization. 
53. In the regional breakout session on North African Trade, there was agreement that trade was 
already centrally important to North African econom ies, but that much more progress was needed on 
regional integration.  Trade between UMA countries am ounted to just 4 per cent of the region's total, 
whereas trade with the EU was 65 per cent (eve n higher for Morocco and Tunisia).  One study 
suggested that deep integration among Maghreb co untries, combined with open regionalism, could 
increase GDP by 50 per cent over ten years.  Part icipants had suggested that a main objective of 
Aid for Trade should be to help drive regional inte gration.  For example, a road network between 
Benghazi and Nouakchott would provide an essential arte ry for intra-regional trad e and integration.   
54. The main recommendation from the North Afri can session was to consolidate and build up 
current integration initiatives, not only between UMA countries but also between North African and 
sub-Sahara countries (i.e. South-South programmes) .  Existing needs assessments should be followed 
up with efforts to identify priority projects at the regional level and to establish detailed 
implementation plans (including chronograms, manda ted institutions, and financing), reflecting 
regional experiences and best practices.  The key pr iorities were trade facilitation, optimising energy 
resources, improving telecommunication and transpor t infrastructure, and reducing the costs of WT/COMTD/AFT/M/5 
Page 12  
 
  production.  Because UMA was key to advancing regional integration, c oordinating cross-border 
projects and monitoring progress, efforts should be made to strengthen its human and institutional 
capacity, making it a credible partner for other implementing agencies. 
55. The following cross-cutting themes had emerged from the discussions in the break out and 
plenary sessions: 
• Country leadership and mainstreaming.  Strong leadership at the national and regional level 
was needed to make trade and competitiveness a priority, and to mainst ream trade issues in 
national development strategies.  
• Focus on regional projects and integration.   Regional programmes and projects – and 
strengthening regional mechanisms – should be a central focus of Aid for Trade, and help guide funding priorities.   
• Identify key priorities.  The need to focus on ke y priorities – especially at the regional level - 
was a recurring theme.  Having a hundred priorities meant having no priorities.   
• Improve trade logistics.  The need to conn ect African economies with each other and the 
world – through better ports, roads, waterways and other infrastructure – was repeatedly emphasized.   
• Mobilize the private sector.  The success of export-led de velopment strategies depended 
fundamentally on the capacity and competitiveness  of private sector actors, i.e. exporters, 
suppliers and service providers.  
• Harness public private partnerships.  Devel opment assistance and multilateral lending alone 
could not address Africa's infrastructure need s, which required enormous and sustained 
investments, both domestic and foreign.  
• Leverage regional development banks.  The potential for regiona l development banks to fill 
financing gaps – and to provide a focal point for regional capacity building and infrastructure projects – was recognized.   
• Increase and improve financing.  It was clear that scaling up financial assistance – in line with 
the Gleneagles and Hong Kong commitments – was a central priority, as were delivery mechanisms that were tr ansparent, efficient, accountable and predictable.  Close adherence to 
the Paris Declaration was urged.   
• Coherence and Cooperation.  A common theme was the need for greater cooperation, 
coordination and coherence among all Aid for Trad e actors.  The challenge was not to create a 
new mechanism, but to get all of the existing me chanisms to work together more effectively. 
56. Building on these themes, the following recommendations were being put forward by the 
UNECA, the AfDB and the WTO, for considerati on at the Global Review of Aid for Trade on 
20-21 November 2007.  These recommendations should be  seen as a roadmap for developing concrete 
Aid for Trade strategies for Africa: 
• Awareness and understanding of Aid for Trade.   The UNECA and ADB, in collaboration with 
the WTO, should continue to play a dynamic role  in raising awareness about – and helping to 
advance – the Aid for Trade initiative in Africa.  
• Identify trade priorities.  Africa 's trade needs were well known.  It was important to go to the 
next level by encouraging countries and sub-re gions to map out the priority structural 
bottlenecks or binding constraints to trade at the national – and especially  at the regional – 
level, building on existing studies and assessments.   WT/COMTD/AFT/M/5 
 Page 13 
 
 
  • Aid for Trade action plans.  Encourage countri es and sub-regions to develop Aid for Trade 
action plans, mainstreamed with country prior ities, to address key priorities identified in the 
first stage, including the identification of actors and activities, financing needs and an implementation schedule.  Where possible, pr ojects and programmes identified and developed 
by the REC's should form a basis for these plans. 
• African Aid for Trade network.  Create an "A frican Aid for Trade Network" – led by the 
UNECA and the AfDB, including countries, donor s, regional and multilateral agencies, and 
private-sector representatives – to assist countries and sub-regions in mapping out priorities and developing action plans.  
• Progress report in Autumn 2008.  Task the UNECA and AfDB to report regularly on 
progress.  Hold a regional stocktaking conference in the autumn of 2008. 
57. The Chairman
 thanked all of the speakers for their presentations and opened the floor for 
questions or comments. 
58. The representative of Bangladesh  asked the representative of the OECD how Aid for Trade 
could be mainstreamed into nati onal development strategies.  He also asked what principle was 
followed to separate Aid for Trade from general ODA and how transaction costs of Aid for Trade 
could be reduced since recipients were exposed to different sets of requirements by different donors. 
59. The representative of the European Communities  welcomed improvements for future 
monitoring and believed that there could be more clarity regarding pledges, specifically regarding 
currencies.  She also believed that pledges were not  comparable since a donor's pledge to provide in a 
particular Aid for Trade category did not exclude th e provisions of funds in other categories.  She 
expressed concern at the low level of answers to the questionnaire from partner countries.  The causes 
of this shortcoming should be analysed to improve responses in the future.  She also believed that the 
regional reviews were a very good ex ercise for raising awareness and th at the next step should be to 
work on the priorities that had been identified and continue working at the sub-regional level.  She 
also suggested discussing the planning and agenda of  any future regional reviews in the CTD.  She 
then asked what the role of the regional banks woul d be in the future.  With regard to the Aid for 
Trade agenda, she said that if the regional banks we re to be involved in the regional reviews, then 
they should also attend the CTD sessions on Aid for Tr ade.  In regard to th e CTD's activities, she said 
the CTD's discussions had helped to raise awaren ess and had included some high quality presentations 
by various agencies.  She asked if it were possible to organize the CTD sessions on Aid for Trade well in advance so that Members could be sure to send the right experts to meetings where specific topics 
were to be addressed.  
60. The representative of Pakistan
 asked whether the ADB would change the focus from 
analyzing needs and priorities to implementing respon ses.  In this regard, she said that there were 
several recommendations including the preparation of a report by the ADB which would identify the 
trade-related needs in the Asia and Pacific region.  She asked if governments had also been asked to 
provide their list of priorities as well as the regional technical groups which could draft proposals and provide a practical framework for the sub-regions and countries. Finally, she asked the ADB for its 
views on national government ownership of such projects. 
61. The representative of Haiti
 asked whether there was not a difference between official 
development aid and Aid for Trade?  In regard to  official development aid in the Latin American 
region, he said than in Haiti's case the IADB had trie d to strengthen the role of the private sector.  
62. The representative of Barbados  recalled that his country's Minister of Foreign Affairs and 
Trade had given one of the key addresses at the re gional meeting held in Lima, Peru.  He said the 
Minister had stressed the importance of Aid for Trade for the Caribbean as a mechanism to enhance WT/COMTD/AFT/M/5 
Page 14  
 
  productive capacity and to increase the region's shar e of world trade, with the primary goal of 
supporting development.  The Aid for Trade initiative was of particular importance to the Caribbean 
because it presented a mechanism to  deliver aid effectively.  It also presented opportunities for 
regional projects which could include every country in the region.  The Minister of Barbados had 
stressed the need for additionality of funds for aid for trade and for specific consideration to be given 
to the particular realities and needs of small a nd vulnerable economies.  Also important was the 
evaluation and monitoring of the aid for trade proc ess.  For Barbados the Aid for Trade mechanism 
had to achieve a delicate balance between predictab ility of funding and a consistency in formats for 
requesting and disbursing funds.  The mechanism need ed to be flexible enough to react to their 
priorities and signals from recipient countries.  He  said that Barbados remained enthusiastic and 
committed to the Aid for Trade initiative.  However, discussions should soon move to the 
implementation phase.  Finally, he asked the represen tatives of the regional development banks if they 
had been able to cross-reference their findings to determine, for example, if there were any shared 
priorities or constraints between the small ec onomies which were in the Latin-American and 
Caribbean region, the small and vulnerable economies (SVEs) in the African region and those in the 
Asian/Pacific region.  With regard to the Latin Am erica and Caribbean report, Barbados endorsed the 
recommendations and key priorities as set out in the document.  However, his Government did wish 
to emphasize the importance of and the need for assist ance for adjustment as a distinct and additional 
component of aid.  He underlined that it was to be  aid outside of aid given for export diversification 
and export development.  Furthermore, he asked whether the OECD had statistics on how much Aid 
for Trade funds from donors were disbursed th rough the regional banks and how much was 
transmitted directly to the recipients  through bilateral aid programmes.  
63. The representative of the United States
 thanked the OECD for its presentation.  She said that 
the Creditor Reporting System (CRS) might not be a perfect vehicle since it may have overstated aid 
for trade assistance in the area of infrastructure.  She added, though, that there was a tremendous 
amount of assistance already underway.  The global m onitoring of Aid for Trade was complex and the 
CTD had in its sessions only tackled the area of donor contributions.  She looked forward to 
addressing monitoring on the recipient side, includ ing the monitoring of the results, and to the 
technical discussions on monitoring and evaluation and cross-cutting issues.  With regard to the presentations of the regional deve lopment banks, she said she would like to thank the participants for 
producing three successful reviews on three contin ents in such a short amount of time.  Her 
Government had been pleased to be  involved in each of the meetings and representatives had attended 
from US Trade Representatives o ffice, USAID, the US Millenium Challenge Corporation, the 
US Department of Agriculture and the US Treasury .  She hoped that the discussions had helped to 
raise the profile of aid for trade among development,  finance and trade ministers and ministries.  The 
US fully supported the need to mainstream trade into development and a key to success would be to 
have plans in place where the national leadership en visioned integrating trade into development.  In 
this regard, she said the regional development banks w ould have an important role to play in helping 
recipient countries integrate trade into developm ent plans, including through their own financial 
resources.  
64. The representative of Senegal
 asked about the joint OECD/WTO report and about a possible 
Aid for Trade review in 2008 and whether it woul d address commitments and disbursements.  He 
wondered whether the 2008 disbursements would incl ude only those made in 2006 or if they would 
also go all the way back to 2002?  Another ques tion concerned the regional dimension.  He asked 
about meetings in 2008 at the regi onal level and other meetings bringi ng together all the participants, 
donors and representatives from the regional banks.  Finall y, he raised questions about whether or not 
workshops or seminars would be organized to identify regional challenges and find solutions, 
especially in regard to the African region. 
65. The representative of Honduras  asked the IADB to indicate how many action plans existed at 
the regional level and whether deadlines had been se t for setting up the support networks.  He also  WT/COMTD/AFT/M/5 
 Page 15 
 
 
  asked how countries would be assisted in defining th eir priorities and developing their plans and how 
these elements related to national ownership.  In regard to the presentation by the OECD, he asked 
how the transaction costs had been measured. 
66. The representative of Argentina  described the technical cooperation activities carried out 
under the auspices of the Argentine Fund for Horizo ntal Cooperation (FO-AR) and its links with the 
Aid for Trade initiative.  The activities carried out  by Argentina, which used its own human and 
financial resources, could be seen as a further c ontribution to meeting the objectives of the Aid for 
Trade initiative that arose from the Hong Kong Minist erial Conference in 2005.  It could also be 
regarded as another instrument of the Doha Development Agenda.  The Argentine Fund for 
Horizontal Cooperation had been in place since 1992 in order to provide technical assistance and 
cooperation to other developing countries through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International 
Trade.  He explained that in the course of the last  15 years, more than 2,500 projects had been carried 
out, involving the participation of over 4,000 Argen tine experts and the training of over 500 experts 
from various countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and 
Africa.  Work was also being carried out on ne w forms of cooperation and funding, such as a 
triangular cooperation programme initiated in 2001.  He wished to draw attention to the positive 
results and conclusions achieved at the Lima seminar in which, like the regional seminars in Dar es 
Salaam and Manila, had helped to identify count ries' Aid for Trade needs and proposals.  In 
particular, his Government wished to emphasize that  the countries of the region (Latin America and 
the Caribbean) were potential beneficiaries of Aid for Trade and possessed excellent conditions 
allowing them to take advantage of their opportu nities as a result of their human and technical 
resources and productive capacities. 
67. The representatives of the OECD  said there was a difference in definition, first between 
Aid for Trade and aid.  She said Aid for Trade was a path for aid.  In its report, the OECD had only 
taken into account overseas development assistance.  She explained that Aid for Trade could be 
considered to be a sub-group of aid.  A key probl em was where to draw the line.  When it came to 
calculating the global tracking of flows, aid for economic infrastructure could be considered to be the 
same as aid calculated as aid for trade.  In rega rd to the Hong Kong pledges, she said that they were 
made in different currencies and in different categ ories.  Pledges made by many donors fell into 
categories which were subsets of their aid for trade spending.  That was particularly true for the European Communities.  As of now, there were on ly three major donors which had made pledges.  
Explanations of these pledges and responses to questi ons could be found in the annexes in the country 
chapters of the US, the EC and Japan.  She explaine d that with regard to disbursements, the 2003 data 
which was available was not very robust.  Next year  she hoped to have data for 2005 and 2006.  As to 
how much aid was being channelled through the regi onal banks, she did not have the exact figures to 
hand but added that normally 20 per cent of ODA wa s channelled through mu ltilateral institutions.  
68. Another representative of the OECD said ther e were three main themes in the overall 
discussion:  mainstreaming, transaction costs, an d increasing partner country participation in the 
process.  On the question of mainstreaming, he said the OECD and other development agencies were now more active in mainstreaming trade into their de velopment strategies.  He explained that the Aid 
for Trade process succeeded in raisi ng awareness in 2007 at a very high political level.  He added that 
one important matter raised at the regional event he ld in Lima, for example, was that donor agencies 
now felt more accountable to their parliaments to reduce poverty.  He said this was one of the UN's 
Millenium Development Goals, mainly to reduce povert y by 2015.  He said that at the high political 
level, there was an awareness of the importance of trade for economic growth and poverty reduction.  
There was also a willingness to spend more attenti on and money on trade in development strategies.  
At the bureaucratic level, however, there were pe ople who were sympathetic to the views expressed 
by the non-governmental organization (NGO) commun ity which questioned the impact of trade on 
poverty reduction and income distribution.  He sa id there was a need to raise awareness in donor 
agencies that money spent on building trade capac ity in developing countries was money well spent WT/COMTD/AFT/M/5 
Page 16  
 
  vis-à-vis  money spent on health and education.  As rega rds transaction costs, he said one of the main 
aims of the Paris Declaration was to reduce the costs of delivering aid and making it more effective.  The Declaration set out indicators to reduce the tr ansaction costs, such as reducing the number of 
individual missions and to increase the number of joint missions, and to reduce the number of individual needs assessments and to increase the number of joint needs assessments.  He explained as 
well that the reduction of transaction costs and its measurements took place via the monitoring of the 
Paris Declaration.  He added that in the OECD's  monitoring of Aid for Trade, a decision had been 
taken to try to avoid duplication.  He pointed out that there were considerable opportunity costs.  A lot 
of time was being spent in the CTD, and in other organizations, in the OECD, and in aid agencies on this process.  He said it was key now to move on to the next phase of implementation by showing 
results.  With regard to partner c ountry participation, he explained th at a letter with a list of questions 
and reply forms had been sent by the heads of the WTO and the OECD to all permanent 
representatives of partner countries.  However, only a limited number of responses had been received.  This could provide an indication of some of the capa city problems at some of the missions in Geneva 
and elsewhere.  In the course of 2008, there would be more of a focus on having in-depth 
consultations on this questionnaire in the hopes of ra ising more awareness of the process.  He added, 
however, that there would only be a serious follow up activity if Aid for Trade was being mainstreamed in partner countries' development strategies. 
69. In regard to the EC's comment that the re presentatives from regional banks should be present 
at future CTD Session on Aid for Tr ade, the representative of the ADB
 said it could be a possibility.  
As to Pakistan's question concerning national owne rship in the selection and management of national 
projects, he said this was something that was already under discussion between the Government of 
Pakistan and the ADB and that both national and regional aspects were being addressed.  Concerning 
small states and the question of ADB's relations w ith Africa and the Caribbean, he explained that the 
ADB had a new programme of research and assistance underway called the Weakly-Performing Country Initiative  
70. The representative of the UNECA
 commented on the data presented by the OECD.  He said 
that in the data, Africa was at the tail-end of trade flows for 2005 and that it was the region that 
actually needed the most trade-related technical as sistance.  He asked the Members to keep a strong 
focus on Africa because that was the c ontinent that needed a lot of technical support to be able to be 
effectively integrated into the global economy and the global trading system.  
71. The representative of the ADB  said he wanted to underline the excellent cooperation the 
AfDB had received from the UNECA and WTO and othe rs such as the OECD and the ITC in making 
the Dar es Salaam event such a great success.  In  response to the EC's suggestion that the regional 
banks should play more of a role in the CTD sessi ons on Aid for Trade, he said this was encouraging 
and should be looked into further. 
72. In response to a question from Haiti about how th e Bank could promote the role of the private 
sector, the representative for the IADB  said this was one of the bank's major priorities.  She explained 
that the IADB had a new vice-president whose manda te it was to strengthen the role of the private 
sector in development with trade and integration.  In reply to the question from Honduras about action 
plans, she said these already existed and were usua lly drawn up by the countries themselves.  At the 
meeting in Lima, these action plans had been endorsed.  However, she said no specific timetables or modalities had been set, which was the next task the IADB would have to undertake in order to 
implement the Lima recommendations.  She said furt her inputs from countries in the region would be 
indispensable. 
73. The Chairman
 thanked all the participants for thei r interventions.  He said the CTD had 
prepared the way for the upcoming global review wh ich would be held in the coming days in the 
WTO's General Council.   WT/COMTD/AFT/M/5 
 Page 17 
 
 
  E. OTHER BUSINESS  
74. There were no items raised under "Other Business". 
75. The meeting was adjourned . 
__________