Background.

Least developed countries (LDCs), and even developing countries, are confronted with supply-side and trade-related infrastructure constraints that mitigate against their effective participation in international trade. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is leading an initiative referred to as Aid for Trade (A4T), to help address these constraints

Aid for Trade is a multi-stakeholder initiative mobilizing resources to address identified supply-side constraints in developing and least developed economies so that they can fully participate in and benefit from international trade. Aid for Trade (AfT) is about helping developing countries, in particular the least developed, to build the trade capacity and infrastructure they need to benefit from trade opening. In 2006, the WTO defined Aid for Trade as “activities identified as trade-related development priorities in the recipient country’s national development strategies”.

 The overall objective of the initiative, launched at the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference held in December of 2005, seeks, in addition to sourcing resources to address the constraints, heighten interest on the part of governments and donor agencies, on the need to place trade and related issues front and center of development. Certainly, trade has a huge role to play in development.

In Nairobi, Kenya in December of 2015, additional text was adopted by the tenth ministerial Conference to underscore the importance of the initiative and also recognized the “…need for this initiative”

Aid for Trade forms part of overall Official Development Assistance (ODA) — grants and concessional loans — targeted at trade-related program and projects. The initiative is an integral part of the Official Development Assistance (ODA) and is recognized to be a valuable complement to the Doha Development Agenda (DDA). However, Aid for Trade cannot be a substitute for the development benefits that will result from a successful conclusion to the DDA.

Two documents are widely regarded as internationally agreed guiding principles used in discussions on AfT: (i) the OECD Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness adopted in 2005 and reconfirmed in the Accra Agenda for Action endorsed in 2008, and (ii) the recommendations of the WTO Task Force on Aid for Trade presented in 2006.

Visit WTO Aid for Trade website