My dear friend Bo Xilai
Mister Mayor
Ladies and Gentlemen
Let me first thank Patricia Francis and the International Trade Centre
not only for organising this event, but also for organising it here in
Chongqing, a place whose development, under the strong leadership of Bo
Xilai and his team, has more and more to do with the opening of China to
international trade.
The WTO is the global organization whose members have entrusted it with
the task of regulating multilaterally the openness of world trade. We
all start from the principle that trade is a transformational driver of
economic growth, and of poverty reduction. In order for trade opening to
work for the benefit of all, strong multilateral disciplines are needed,
and this has been the purpose of the GATT and the WTO over the past 60
years.
Negotiating / administering / enforcing / these disciplines, these
rules, in order to create a fair level playing field among countries is
WTO's core business. Transparency, predictability, stability are our
founding pillars because they are what entrepreneurs need to trade
This system has been put to the test during the recent economic crisis.
And this “stress test” of ours has so far demonstrated the relevance and
the resilience of our system. As a matter of fact, thanks to our
multilateral disciplines, expected protectionism pressures during the
crisis have been contained .
So, the system works. International trade has been SO FAR kept open; as
a result; developing countries, and especially emerging countries, have
become today the main engines of world growth.
Contrary to what happened in the 1930s, when protectionism aggravated
the crisis, resisting protectionism this time has mitigated the crisis.
But the rules of the MTS still need improvement, which is the
fundamental challenge of the Doha Round. They have to be made more
development friendly and the negotiation has gone 80% the way in doing
so. No surprise if developing countries are now pushing hard for a rapid
conclusion, an issue which I have discussed recently with President Lee
in Korea, and then with Vice President Xi Jin Ping, and Minister Chen
Deming here in China. They all agree on the necessity to give the final
political push, so that what remains to be negotiated in order to find
the right final balance is done in the coming months.
But when we speak of increased market access and improved rules of
trade, it is mainly those countries already engaged in trade that have
the most to gain. But what about the others that have only small shares
of world trade and only trade in one or two main products or
commodities? These include many developing countries and most of the 49
least-developed countries, the LDCs.
One point which has become increasingly clear is that market access
alone does not equal market entry. A range of other supply-side and
trade-related infrastructure constraints still prevent many developing
countries from enjoying the advantages built into the multilateral
trading system.
This is why in 2005 at the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference, we launched
the Aid-for-Trade initiative. We needed a more comprehensive solution
than just providing training to trade ministries, however important this
task. We needed a more holistic view which encompassed the full range of
tools at our disposal to help developing countries to integrate into the
global economy.
Our progress since Hong Kong has been noteworthy. Since 2005, there has
been a turnabout in development financing for trade. Flows have
increased year-on-year and reached 42 billion US $ in 2008. Signs are
positive that this commitment is being sustained, despite the recently
growing pressure on public finances among the OECD countries. And new
sources of funding are emerging, notably among South-South partners.
Here, China is playing an increasing role. China is now an important
partner for developing countries. And I see it as a positive development
that more than 100 developing countries in Asia and the Pacific, Africa
and Latin America are learning from the experiences of China's
transformation and profiting from the vast expertise it brings.
But we also need to show impact. To respond to this need, I have placed
reporting on outcomes and impacts as the central theme of the Third
Global Review for Trade next July in Geneva. For us to sustain this
progress, to allow the G 20 to sustain momentum, we need better
reporting on impacts and outcomes.
Getting A4T to work better also means ensuring that developing countries
— and especially LDCs — express their demand for trade-related
assistance and that donor partners align their support with that demand.
For least-developed countries, the Integrated Framework has a crucial
role to play. The IF as it is called is actually a fully-fledged
Aid-for-Trade programme for LDCs.
The IF — which started in 1997 as a joint effort by UNCTAD, the
International Trade Centre, the World Bank, the IMF, UNDP, and the WTO —
has undergone substantial changes recently to improve the way it
functions, with the overall goal being to help LDCs to become active
players in international trade.
A large component of building more trade capacity is understanding how
trade can be integrated into a development or poverty reduction
strategy. For LDCs, this is often the first step toward identifying key
constraints to overall competitiveness, to see how they can insert
themselves into global supply chains in order to focus on sectors of
export potential.
The Integrated Framework helps LDCs identify their trade bottlenecks,
gets participating agencies to use their areas of expertise to respond
to the pressing needs of LDCs and helps drive donor support to fund the
various projects identified.
Currently, funding levels for the Integrated Framework have risen
significantly with resources totalling more that 180 million US $ as of
March 2010. So far 23 donors are supporting the mechanism and 46 LDCs
are benefiting from it.
Let me conclude, Ladies and Gentlemen, in insisting on how important ITC
is for our WTO endeavours. Whether in A4T, or in the specific case of
the IF, ITC has become a major actor in fostering developing countries'
capacity to trade. As a parent of ITC, together with UNCTAD, we have
been increasing our financial and operational support of the work of
ITC. And I want to wholeheartedly thank Patricia Francis for her
leadership in responding vigorously to this drive. Streamlining ITC's
operational capacities in export development and building the necessary
tools for impact evaluation are the main strategic directions which WTO
has given to ITC. Your work in the coming days will have a crucial
impact for the attainments of these strategic goals, and I thank you in
advance for your contributions.
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