Pledging conference on trade and aid ends - Summary

from Earth Times

Stockholm - Donors pledged sufficient funds for organizers to claim "success" Tuesday at a conference aimed at supporting a fund to help developing countries gain better access to international trade. Swedish International Development Cooperation Minister Gunilla Carlsson, one of the co-chairs, said that 170 million dollars had been raised for a trust fund to be set up to enhance and support trade for developing countries.

The amount was 75 per cent of the 250-million-dollar sum envisaged for the trust fund. In addition, 150 million dollars was to be raised via bilateral programmes, Carlsson said, saying she was "confident" those sums would come through.

The main donors among the 22 of 34 donor countries to make pledges included Britain, Norway and host nation Sweden.

Pascal Lamy, head of the World Trade Organization (WTO), told reporters the mechanism was a means of "building necessary capacity" in developing countries and the pledges would help create "stability" and "predictability" for developing countries and their partners.

Earlier, Lamy addressed the delegates, noting that despite "the tremendous expansion of world trade" during the past 10-year-period, the least-developed countries have yet to fully benefit from increased trade.

Lamy said the poorest countries account for only some 0.6 per cent of world exports and are challenged by "limited capacity to broaden their export product base" as well as poor infrastructure.

Historically and more recently, both Sweden as well as several countries in East Asia and South East Asia had exemplified how "trade can be a very powerful tool in combating poverty," Swedish Trade Minister Ewa Bjorling said in her speech.

Speaking on behalf of the least-developed countries, Lesotho's Finance Minister Timothy Thahane reminded delegates and later reporters of the challenges facing this group of countries including "information of the markets" and understanding of trade rules.

Many countries in Africa, including his own, were landlocked and therefore needed a functioning transport system so that goods reached the importing markets on time, he said.

Supachai Panitchpakdi, head of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD, also called for more funding to build capacity despite recent trends where aid to "economic infrastructure" has been reduced in favour of debt reduction, emergency aid and food aid.

The funds to be allocated to the so-called Enhanced Integrated Framework were aimed at helping states identify bottlenecks and problems affecting trade and exports as well as to seek funds to improve their capacity and coordination.