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The Director-General of the WTO announced the composition of the
Task Force at the General Council meeting of 7 February 2006; the
Task Force was chaired by Ambassador Mia Horn af Rantzien of Sweden. Charged with operationalizing
Aid-For-Trade, the task force submitted its recommendations to the General Council on
27-28 July 2006.
In general, the recommendations consider that Aid for Trade
should aim at strengthening needs identification at the country
level, donor response and the bridge between donor response and
needs. Included in its recommendations is the establishment of a
monitoring body in the WTO which would undertake a periodic global
review based on reports from a variety of stakeholders. The report
concludes with a series of further steps to be taken to make its
recommendations operational as soon as possible and suggests that
the Director-General establish an “ad hoc” consultative group to
follow up on the Task Force's recommendations.
At the General Council on October 10, the Council took note of the
report of the Task Force (WT/AFT/1),
endorsed the recommendations contained therein, and agreed to the
specific next steps outlined in Section H of the report, in order to
ensure coherent and effective follow-up to the report and its
recommendations. The Task Force Chair made a statement highlighting, inter alia, the wide consensus on the main issues.
Delegations, in welcoming the report as an important first step,
highlighted, inter alia, the critical importance of moving
expeditiously to operationalize aid for trade; that although it
would help countries adapt to and benefit from the present
opportunities in the trading system, it was not a substitute for the
development benefits that would flow from a successful Doha Round,
which would itself give rise to new AFT needs that would have to be
addressed; the need for coherence, and strong monitoring and
evaluation of implementation; the need for additional, adequate,
predictable, sustainable and effective financing, which should be
made available without conditionality and in grant form to LDCs and
IDA-only countries. The Council also heard a statement from small
low-income countries-in-transition of their need to be treated as
beneficiaries under this endeavour. The Director-General, providing
an update on his task of exploring mechanisms to secure additional
financial resources for AFT, said he would report to the next
Council on implementation of the follow-up to the Task Force's
report.
Task Force Follow-up back to top
At the year-end General Council (14 December, 2006) the
Director-General reported on progress in implementing the Aid for
Trade agenda. He noted that the WTO had a catalytic role to play
ensuring that relevant agencies and organizations understood the
trade needs of WTO Members and encouraging them to work together
more effectively to address these needs, in line with the Coherence
mandate. On his consultations regarding additional financing, the
key donors had confirmed that they remained committed to following
through with their Hong Kong pledges. Other donors, both developed
and developing, had signalled their willingness to be part of this
process. Turning to the issue of monitoring and evaluation, he had
circulated a concept paper which laid out multiple forms of
monitoring, at the global and country level; assessing global flows;
progress reports from agencies and organizations and in-country
assessments. For the latter, national Aid-for-Trade Committees
(where needed) were envisaged. He emphasized that the monitoring
needed to focus on what the money would achieve. Furthermore, a
general assessment of Aid for Trade would be included in future
Trade Policy Reviews and the first periodic review as well as a
debate in the General Council would take place in the autumn of
2007. An ad hoc consultative group, comprising a network of donors,
recipients and private sector representatives would serve as a
resource and sounding board in preparing periodic reviews.
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