Advocacy for "Aid for Trade": Aid for Trade has become an important element of the World Trade Organization's work in the past year, a job that requires it to take on an advocacy and coordination role.

• Date: 01 October 2006
• Author: Lamy, Pascal
• Published date: 01 October 2006
• Author: Lamy, Pascal

The heart of the Doha Development Agenda is a "trade and growth" agenda that is of central importance to helping developing countries, and especially the least developed countries (LDCs), to reach their Millennium Development Goals.

"Aid for Trade" is about investing in developing countries so they can use trade as an engine for growth, development and poverty reduction. It aims to help them build the supply-side capacity and trade-related infrastructure that they need to be able to implement and benefit from WTO Agreements, and more broadly, to expand their trade.

In the past 12 months, Aid for Trade has become an important political and economic complement to the negotiations, one that can contribute greatly to unlocking the full growth potential of a successful Doha round.

A factor that is complicating the conclusion of the trade negotiations themselves is the evolving public response to globalization in many parts of the world. Today it is not only global income growth that matters. It is also who shares in that growth and how. Politically, we cannot leave the question of "who gains what?" from trade liberalization to market forces only.

We have to address...