“We are moving from making trade possible to making trade happen,” said Director-General Pascal Lamy. “With Aid for Trade, we have the tools to break the shackles that have been holding back the trade potential of many poor countries, such as substandard infrastructure, lack of modern technology and inadequate financing.”

“We want to ensure — from the very beginning — that developing countries can take advantage of the new trading opportunities that will emerge from the Doha Round,” he added.

The objectives of “Mobilizing Aid for Trade: A Global Review” are threefold:

• Take stock of what’s happening: The global review weaves together various inputs in the monitoring process, including a discussion on the results and recommendations of the three regional reviews that took place recently, in Lima, Peru for Latin America and the Caribbean; in Manila, Philippines for Asia and the Pacific; and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania for Africa.

• Identify what should happen next: The meeting is expected to help develop roadmaps for mainstreaming trade in national development strategies. For the next steps, partner countries, donors and agencies will be encouraged to identify key objectives and to discuss how these objectives can most effectively be met.

• Better monitoring and evaluation: The global review will also discuss ways of better monitoring and evaluating progress by partner and donor countries, including efforts to launch a work programme aimed at developing qualitative targets for improving trade capacity.

The meeting will be preceded on 19 November by a technical workshop on monitoring and evaluation aspects of Aid for Trade.

The global review will start on 20 November with a summary and report by Mr. Lamy and OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría.

In the following session, heads of key international agencies and regional banks are expected to outline their respective organization’s vision, priorities and plans for Aid for Trade. These are: Mr. Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank; Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the IMF; Mr. Kemal Dervis, Administrator of the UNDP; Mr. Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank; Mr. Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter-American Development Bank; and Mr. Rajat Nag, Managing Director General of the Asian Development Bank. Heads of other international organisations with a relevant role in Aid for Trade such as Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi of UNCTAD; Mr. Juan Somavia, Director General of the ILO; Mr. Edouard Dayan, Director of the Universal Postal Union; Ms Patricia Francis, Executive Director of the ITC; Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, Executive Secretary of the UNECA; and Mr. Kandeh Yumkella, Director-General of UNIDO are also expected to present their views.

Similar inputs are expected from bilateral donors, including China, the European Union and member states, Japan and the United States.

The dialogue among partner countries, donors and agencies will continue in three regional sessions that will focus on developing roadmaps for, respectively, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific, and Africa. In these sessions, the relevant regional development bank will provide an initial summary of the three regional reviews and its recommendations.

The global review will conclude on 21 November when the WTO General Council holds its first annual debate on Aid for Trade. This meeting will give WTO members an opportunity to discuss the results of the WTO monitoring process, and provide political guidance on future directions of the initiative.

Please visit the WTO Aid for Trade homepage for more information and the programme.