Development and building trade capacity
Executive summary
The 2022 Aid for Trade Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) exercise takes place amidst crises of unprecedented magnitude significantly affecting trade and investment. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe human and economic losses slowing down and in some cases reversing hard won progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Countries lacking the capacity to implement large monetary and fiscal stimuli were hit hard experiencing widening inequalities. While 2021 showed signs of a swift recovery in early 2022 Russia’s war against Ukraine created a major humanitarian crisis and derailed economic growth prospects. Spikes in the price of energy and food caused by the war combined with rapidly rising inflation are posing serious food security risks in low-income countries (LICs).
Statistical note
According to the WTO Task Force on Aid for Trade projects and programmes are part of aid for trade if these activities have been identified as trade related development priorities in the partner country’s national development strategies.
Explanatory note
The aid-for-trade country profiles provide factual information aid-for-trade financing flows trade costs trade performance and key development indicators at the country level. The aim is to compare a performance in these four categories for the year 2020 as compared to 2006 the year of the inception of the aid-for-trade initiative and against country group benchmarks for these selected indicators. The aim of the country profiles is to stimulate debate on aid-for-trade effectiveness.
Recomendaciones
Los PDSL constituyen un grupo muy especial de países que se enfrentan a dificultades muy atípicas. Para hacer frente a estos desafíos será necesario adoptar medidas concretas destinadas a integrar más plenamente a los PDSL en el sistema multilateral de comercio. En el presente informe se han identificado algunas de las esferas y cuestiones respecto de las que tanto los propios PDSL como las organizaciones y países de tránsito involucrados habrán de adoptar medidas específicas para superar los cuellos de botella del comercio. La escasez de datos actualizados y las dificultades para obtenerlos de algunas de las zonas más remotas del mundo hacen difícil reflejar todos los factores de manera integral y precisa.
Recommendations
LLDCs are a very special group of countries which face very atypical constraints. To address these challenges will require special measures to more fully integrate LLDCs into the multilateral trading system. This report has identified some of the areas and issues where targeted steps need to be taken to ease trade bottlenecks – not only by the LLDCs themselves but also transit countries and organizations involved. The paucity of up-to-date data and the difficulties to collect it from some of the remotest areas of the world make it hard to capture all the factors comprehensively and accurately.
Foreword by Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Among the outreach activities I have undertaken since becoming Director-General have been very detailed and substantive meetings with landlocked developing countries (LLDCs). They have told me how the particular barriers they face due to a lack of territorial access to the sea and isolation from the world’s largest markets restrict the free flow of trade and impose constraints on their socio-economic development. The COVID-19 pandemic has been especially damaging to their fragile economies which has brought new challenges such as container shortages high shipping costs and the closure of borders to stop the spread of COVID-19. In response I requested the WTO Secretariat to conduct this study on the logistical constraints impacting the trade performance of LLDCs and how trade bottlenecks could be reduced. I am very happy that the study has been produced in such a short time.