The WTO’s role in Aid for Trade (A4T) will essentially be one of monitoring, but the institutional arrangements to do so are yet to be established. WTO Director- General Lamy told Members on 10 October that there was ‘broad agreement’ that existing mechanisms should not be replaced or duplicated, and that the WTO Secretariat was still assessing how ‘internal mechanisms’ could best be used to fulfil the mandate. He will update the General Council on progress in December.
While monitoring will be crucial to ensure that committed funds have been delivered and spent on the recipient countries’ trade promotion priorities, much of the initial work must be done by the recipient countries themselves. Some countries have already started to assess their needs and priorities. Mauritius, for instance, has already identified the measures that must be taken to adjust its economy to changes brought by globalisation and even calculated how much those measures are likely to cost. Among other sources financing, it hopes that Aid for Trade will cover part of the reforms it plans to undertake. Importantly, WTO Members have agreed that A4T can support a broad range of activities, and “is not conditional on the Doha Round’s success.”
Some developing country trade delegates have indicated a certain sense of frustration over the lack of progress within the WTO in implementing the Aid for Trade Task Force’s recommendations. They note that the Director-General still has not reported to the membership on the results of his consultations with donors and financial institutions on securing additional funding for A4T. 1 Nor has the ad hoc consultative group been established, although the Task Force suggested that one be set up “to take forward the practical follow-up of these recommendations.”
ENDNOTE
1 At the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference Japan pledged US$10 billion over three years, the US promised US$2.7 billion by 2010 and the EU • 2 billion by 2010.