Trade reform and liberalization are necessary components of comprehensive policies for poverty alleviation and development. Trade liberalization while vital to development, does not stand alone. Companion policies are also required, as part of a wider package of economic reform, without which the dividends from an open multilateral trading system are minimal, and integration into the global economy will be retarded. This panel will examine essential and required companion policies that constitute part of the wider package of economic reforms, and which intervene in the complex relationship between trade liberalization, poverty alleviation and development.

Richard Eglin, Director Trade and Finance Division, WTO
Professor Frederic Jenny, Chairman, WTO Working Group on Trade and Competition Policy & Conseil de la Concurrence, France

Discussions

Panel B will focus on clarifying the concept and value of mainstreaming, and setting-out the mechanics of how a trade agenda and trade priority areas of action are actually integrated into development plans and poverty reduction strategies. How do you mainstream? The different approaches and options to mainstreaming will be discussed. How do key economic domestic ministries and departments coordinate and seek an integrated approach that includes complementary market reforms, supporting policies and institutions? Who arbitrates domestic discussions to establish a national economic consensus that is integrated and balanced, and to which trade priority areas of action are integral? What are the main approaches, and which are the best practices? Is external policy support (intervention) by multilateral Agencies necessary to achieve the mainstreaming of a trade integration agenda, as a vital public good, into development plans and poverty reduction strategies? Is there a cost to mainstreaming, how is the cost calculated, and who pays for costs of mainstreaming?

Ataman Aksoy, Economic Advisor, Economic Policy, Development Prospects Group, World Bank
Graham Chipande, Senior Economist, UNDP in the Gambia
Professor Deepak Nayyar, Vice Chancellor, University of New Delhi

Discussions

Eimi Watanabe, Assistant Administrator and Director of the Bureau of Development Policy, UNDP
Dr. Ravi Ratnayake, Chief, Trade Policy Section, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

A major challenge in the implementation of policy, particularly for public goods is how to build a viable domestic constituency, necessary for advocacy and policy sustainability. Public goods involve adjustment costs, and the benefits while certain and meaningful may not be immediate, but medium to long-term. Furthermore, there are competing national economic choices involving decisions on national expenditure from the immediate and urgent to avert disasters to the medium and long-term for sustained growth and development. Panel C will focus on building domestic constituency for mainstreaming and ensuring that a trade integration agenda is part of development plans and poverty reduction strategies. Several developing countries, particularly in Asia, have been successful in establishing trade priority areas of action as part of national development plans. The presentation and the contributions by panelists will focus on country experiences both from a governmental point of view, as well as from the perspective of consultants who have assisted governments in their efforts to build a domestic constituency.

Discussions

Panel D will consider the various initiatives for the delivery of trade-related technical assistance, the development vehicles within which they operate, and the urgent need for improved coordination. There will be particular focus on the new arrangements for the enhanced implementation of the Integrated Framework within the development vehicle of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs).

LDCs' beneficiaries of trade-related technical assistance delivered by bilateral donors and multilateral agencies have expressed frustration at the multiplicity of vertical initiatives with little horizontal coordination. Improved coordination is needed amongst bilateral donors and multilateral Agencies. Efforts at correction have begun, but need to be expanded and accelerated. The Integrated Framework, in the past three years, has emerged as a valuable platform for inter-agency coordination for the delivery of trade-related technical assistance. The IF has become a reliable channel of communication amongst the six core Agencies and has significantly enhanced coordination and trust amongst the agencies. The six core Agencies recognize that the successful implementation of the IF would be a win-win situation for LDCs, donors and the Agencies. The potential of the IF is enormous, but is yet to be fully realized. Involvement of the bilateral donors in the efforts of the core Agencies is an urgent objective to be attained goal for the more effective implementation of the IF. In this regard, the DAC/OECD Secretariat has been invited to a meeting of the Inter Agency Working Group (IAWG), responsible for managing the IF. There is a strong desire that the DAC should continue to participate in the IAWG in order to improve coordination between bilateral donors and multilateral agencies.

The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) is also strongly committed to improving coordination with multilateral agencies. As a forum for bilateral aid agencies to share experiences and good practices, the DAC increasingly recognises the importance of trade for development and poverty reduction, and the need to participate actively in international efforts to help build the human and institutional capacities of developing countries to trade. The DAC is currently in the process of preparing a set of guidelines in this area. The guidance aims to foster effective partnerships between developed and developing countries. It also aims to promote synergies between the aid and trade communities, on the one hand, and between the bilateral and multilateral donor communities on the other hand, particularly with regard to the effective implementation of the Integrated Framework. The DAC guidelines under preparation will include: a) the importance of mainstreaming trade into country-specific poverty reduction strategies (PRSPs); b) facilitating the emergence of a strong country-level trade policy process; and, c) providing a roadmap for effective donor policies and instruments.

Richard Carey, Director, DAC/OECD Secretariat
Chiedu Osakwe, Head, Secretariat Working Group for LDCs/IF, WTO

Discussions

Panel E will seek to identify the issues that are core to meaningful integration of trade priority areas of action within national development plans and poverty reduction strategies. There is a global as well as domestic dimension to the core issues in mainstreaming. The issues and their importance may also vary from country to country. The results of this panel will assist in improving understanding of those critical issues that require reflection in a trade integration agenda for development and poverty reduction.

Uri Dadush, Director, Economic Policy and Development Prospects Group, World Bank
Susan Prowse, Senior Economic Adviser, Department for International Development (DFID), UK

Discussions