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The UK has been at the forefront in promoting the need to increase support for trade integration, since 2005, aiming to influence the international community to provide a step change in trade support.
DFID Secretary of State Douglas Alexander launched the UK Aid for Trade Strategy at a major international conference in Doha on Monday, 3 December. The Aid for Trade Strategy is an initiative of the BERR/DFID Joint Trade Policy Unit. In a speech to more than 70 stakeholders, the Secretary announced the UK’s intention to spend at least £400 million per year on Aid for Trade by 2010. The event was co-hosted by EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel, and attended by Malawi’s Minister of Finance Goodall Gondwe, and the Tanzanian Minister of Finance and Planning, Mustapha Mkulo.
Aid for Trade is a key plank of our trade and development agenda, helping to create competitive economies across the globe. At its core, Aid for Trade is about the faster and cheaper movement of goods and about creating opportunities for developing countries to grow and develop through trade. Key outcomes include reducing border delays, increasing exports, export income and productivity, raising standards and making traders more competitive. The UK’s Aid for Trade Strategy will also help to ease the costs of adjustment to a more open trading system.
Combined with a successful Doha Development Agenda (DDA) agreement, which the UK is pushing for, Aid for Trade will help build countries’ capacities to trade and improve the investment climate in many developing countries. A successful DDA would be a 'shot in the arm' for the world economy, providing a much needed boost in confidence, helping to reform world agriculture markets and tackling growing protectionist sentiment.
The BERR/DFID Joint Trade Policy Unit works to secure trade deals that are beneficial to both the UK and to poorer countries, working towards our dual objectives of global poverty reduction and UK competitiveness and market access.
Contact:
Camilla Otto
email: c-otto@dfid.gov.uk
