The World Bank and the World Trade Organization are establishing a new
fund, called the Standards and Trade Development Facility, as part of
their efforts to link aid to trade opportunities in the fight against
poverty.
The
fund — in cooperation with other organizations — will provide a
stimulus to important new projects for developing countries in this
critical area, helping them shape and implement international
standards on food safety, and plant and animal health. The goal is to
provide grants and financial support for technical assistance projects
in developing countries through enhanced collaboration between the
international organizations involved.
The
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Health Organization
(WHO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) are expected
to join the Bank and the WTO in the facility. Also expected to
participate are the Codex Alimentarius (the food safety
standards-setting organization run jointly by the FAO and WHO), and
the Secretariat of the International Plant Protection Convention at
the FAO.
Developing
countries say they often have difficulty meeting disease and
contaminant standards for their food exports to richer countries’
markets. The new facility will help these nations strengthen and
better implement food safety and plant and animal health measures —
a win-win outcome for developed and developing nations. This will help
smooth the path for exports from the developing world to global
markets, thereby spurring growth and poverty reduction in poor
countries.
The
initiative also represents a concrete commitment of the Bank and WTO
to place developing countries in a stronger position to take advantage
of the WTO agreements, and in particular of the Agreement on the
Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures.
The
World Bank has agreed to provide an initial US$300,000 to establish
the new fund, and the WTO will allocate funding from the Doha
Development Trust Fund to launch the Facility. The WTO will administer
the facility for the partners.
Members
of the Group of Eight — meeting in Kananaskis, Canada, in June —
pledged to back new initiatives in standards, and the WTO and the
World Bank hope the G-8 members will follow through with pledges of
new financing to support the facility.
“This
facility represents a concrete step toward giving the developing world
a greater voice in the world trading system, and in a way that can
bring real benefits through greater exports,” World Bank President
James Wolfensohn said in announcing the facility’s creation. “The
Bank has made standards and related trade facilitation measures a key
priority for our institution — the success of the Facility is an
important part of that long-term commitment”.
The
WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi said “Enhanced technical
assistance and capacity building are essential if developing countries
are to participate more fully in the multilateral trading system. In
the area of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) regulations developing
countries have often had difficulty in meeting standards set in
developed countries. This World Bank initiative will greatly assist
developing countries in meeting these important SPS regulations and
should facilitate more trade and higher living standards in the
developing world. We applaud the Bank’s initiative”.
In
a joint statement issued at the Doha Ministerial Conference in
November 2001, the heads of the World Bank, the WTO, OIE, FAO and the
WHO declared that they were committed to work together to help
developing countries participate more fully in setting and making use
of international SPS standards. (See press
release 254)
According
to World Bank research, Africa could gain over $1 billion a year from
higher exports of nuts, dried fruits, and other agricultural
commodities if it participated in the development of international
standards, and implemented those rules. Bank studies also show that if
governments followed international standards for pesticide residues in
bananas — instead of the more restrictive national standards set by
many developed countries — African banana exports would jump by $410
million a year. The same is true for beef. The adoption of
science-based international standards for minimum residue levels of
veterinary drugs could boost South Africa’s beef exports by $160
million a year, for example.
Related
websites: World Bank and www1.worldbank.org/wbiep/trade/standards.html;
World Trade Organization; WHO;
OIE; Codex
Alimentarius; IPPC
(Press
release issued simultaneously by the World Bank in Washington and the
WTO in Geneva)
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