Trade and Millennium Development Goals:

Millennium Development Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development. Develop further an open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory, includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction— nationally and internationally

Trade liberalisation: why now

The global economic environment has changed significantly since the 1990s. Trade liberalisation at all levels (multilateral, minilateral and unilateral) has proceeded apace and the remit of the WTO has broadened to include new issues such as intellectual property rights, trade in services, investment and competition policy. Importantly for low income countries agriculture is being brought into multilateral trade liberalisation Increasingly globalisation and liberalisation over the past 25 years have seen expanding flows of trade, technology, capital and foreign direct investment between countries in both developed and developing countries. Concerns have been expressed that increased openness leaves developing countries more vulnerable, and indeed may have an adverse impact on income distribution and poverty.

Concern has been expressed that the collapse of the Doha round at the WTO will make future multilateral agreements less likely. It has been suggested that multilateral trade agreements offer the best hope for fair trade for developing countries, since the alternative, bilateral agreements, put developing countries in a very weak bargaining position.

It has also been questioned as to whether Africa in particular has much to gain from Doha, since it already has "the best trade access in the world."

Trade liberalisation and poverty Overseas Development Institute (ODI) 2004

Africa: The Costs of Free Trade, Africa Focus Bulletin, Jul 5, 2005

This is our 21st century challenge -My mission, as Europe’s new trade commissioner, is to make trade fair for the many, not just free for the few. By fairness, I mean enabling all countries, including the poorest, to share in rising global prosperity. Commissioner Mandelson’s Comment in "The Guardian" Brussels, 1 December 2004
EU-Africa: Trade and Development, Speech by Peter Mandelson, SAIIA/BUSA,Pretoria, South Africa, 10 February 2006

Why developing countries should liberalise trade? Fredrik Erixon and Razeen Sally, 13 March 2006

Trade and Poverty Reduction EU-LDC Network paper, November 2001. The issues involved in assessing the impact of trade liberalisation on poverty are highly complex and no less contentious. Although much attention has recently been given to evaluating empirical evidence on the relationship between trade, economic growth and poverty, the simple fact is that the body of rigorous research carried out to date is not substantial given the magnitude of the questions to be addressed.

Aid for Trade

In the last few years there has been growing discussion of the relationships between trading rules and development and of the best ways to help developing countries use trade to promote development, some of the articles here on the architecture of aid for trade provide some insight on this debate.

Aid for Trade - Concept Paper and Timeline for 2006 Prepared by the WTO Secretariat, Geneva, 17th January 2006. The Hong Kong Declaration endorsed efforts to enhance the Integrated Framework (IF) and it created a new WTO work programme on Aid for Trade that aims "to help developing countries, particularly less developed countries, to build up the supply-side capacity and trade-related infrastructure that they need to assist them to implement and benefit from World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements and more broadly to expand their trade".

Aid for Trade : Remarks by Commissioner Mandelson at the IMF/World Bank Panel Discussion, Hong Kong, 13 December 2005

To erase poverty, Africa needs both trade and aid Comment by Peter Mandelson in The
Independent©, 4 July 2005

Can special trade measures help development, when trade tools are weak and the conditions for development are uncertain DFID, Global Trade and Financial Architecture project, May 2005

Aid for Trade: What does it mean? Why should aid be part of WTO negotiations? And how much might it cost? ODI Opinions 61, December 2005. The number of proposals calling for Aid for Trade has increased markedly in the past year, and there is a high degree of political will from developing, least developed and developed countries behind the Aid for Trade agenda.

The Financial architecture of aid for trade April 2006, International Lawyers and Economists against Poverty

Elements for the architecture of aid for trade- The South Centre, April 2006

Aid for Trade Architecture: The what’s, how’s and why’s - who should deliver? B. Hilde F Johnson, Former Minister of International Development, Norway
Trade and Aid: Partners or Rivals in Development Policy? Edited by Sheila Page, London: Cameron May Ltd, 2006 Trade and Aid are normally the most important external forces helping a country to develop. And developed country leaders and institutions have taken the responsibility for promoting development; so they are trying to strengthen these tools.
Improving market access: Toward greater coherence between aid and trade Issue brief by the IMF Staff.