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Lamy's speeches
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Ms Rugwabiza said that Aid for Trade must be a complement to, not a substitute
for, ambitious results from the Doha Development Agenda, and that Aid for Trade
“must not have to compete for existing ODA flows with other development and
poverty reduction priorities; if more financing turns out to be needed to help
build trade infrastructure in developing countries and LDCs, then additional
financing will need to be found”.
Ms Rugwabiza made these remarks today at a panel discussion on Aid for Trade
jointly organized by the IMF and the World Bank during the 6th WTO Ministerial
Conference taking place in Hong Kong from 13 to 18 December 2005.
“One of the aims of the WTO is to help developing countries and LDCs expand
their production and exports of goods and services,” Ms Rugwabiza said. “Some
countries are succeeding well but others are not, including a large number of
LDCs where trade is failing to make the contribution that it should to economic
growth and poverty reduction”.
A comprehensive Aid for Trade initiative needs to respond to two sets of
concerns, according to Ms Rugwabiza, One is the assistance that some WTO Members
will need to help them implement the results of the trade negotiations, and to
cope with any economic adjustment costs that may be incurred. The second,
broader set of concerns is about the insufficiency of trade-related capacity in
many WTO Members to benefit from the opportunities the multilateral rules-based
trading system creates to increase investment and expand the production of
tradable goods and services.
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