A total of EUR 500,000 (approximately CHF 550,000) will go to  the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) to support developing countries and LDCs in complying with international food safety, animal and plant health standards so as to promote safe trade. The objective is to have these countries play a more active role in agricultural trade.

A contribution of EUR 25,000 (over CHF 27,000) will finance the participation of LDC trade officials in the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference, which will take place from 30 November to 3 December 2021 in Geneva. The LDC Trust Fund is set up for each Ministerial Conference, which is the WTO's top decision-making body. Multiple WTO members contribute, helping defray travel expenses (i.e. ticket and accommodation) for officials from LDCs.

The Global Trust Fund (GTF) will receive EUR 500,000 (CHF 550,000) to finance training activities for officials from countries that benefit from technical assistance to help them better understand and implement WTO agreements and to enhance their trading capacity. Since its creation 20 years ago, the GTF has funded over 2,900 activities.

Ms Phillips said: “I welcome Finland's generous contributions, which will help raise the level of inclusiveness of both the WTO's technical assistance activities and the 12th Ministerial Conference. By deepening their trade-related know-how and negotiating trade-related outcomes for their people, trade officials from developing countries and LDCs can help ensure that the benefits of trade can be distributed more equitably across the world.”

Ambassador Kauppi said: “Finland believes that international trade has an essential role to play in helping to reduce poverty and promote economic growth in the post-pandemic world. Through our contribution, we seek to support developing countries and LDCs in making full use of the rules-based global trading system and participate in international trade more effectively.”

Overall, Finland has donated EUR 16.2 million (CHF 14.8 million) to the various WTO trust funds over 20 years.