Brussels, 09/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - Despite the economic crisis, the EU and its member states spent €2.6 billion in 2010 and committed some €10.7 billion in aid for trade to developing countries. This accounted for 60% of global commitments and once again confirmed the EU as the largest provider of aid for trade. This fine performance is the main lesson in the 2012 report published on Monday 9 July by the European Commission on the follow-up to the commitments made by the EU and its member states in the context of the Aid for Trade strategy adopted in 2007. It illustrates that the EU is meeting its commitments (€2 billion reached in 2008 and 2009) and that sub-Saharan Africa is still the main recipient of this aid, which was devised as a development aid instrument.
Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said: “Increasing and improving trade opportunities is part of the solution towards inclusive and sustainable growth of developing countries. Indeed, no country has ever lifted itself out of poverty without trade, at regional and international level. The EU is committed to maintaining its world leader position on Aid for Trade. We need to make sure that people in the world's poorest countries have access to markets, helping them to make a living, create jobs and encourage growth as a result”.
Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht added that Aid for Trade aims to facilitate the integration of developing countries into the world economy: “Aid for Trade empowers operators in developing countries to boost their trade to the EU, making the best of the EU's generous tariff preferences” contained in this agreement.
Aid for Trade helps recipient countries to develop trade strategies, build trade-related infrastructure and improve their production capacity in order to encourage growth and reduce poverty, said the Commission in a press release. Activities include helping countries to build their capacity to trade, through training and technical cooperation such as supporting national trade priorities, adjusting legislation on trade and providing technical assistance for studies on trade-related subjects. At the start of this year, the Commission adopted a range of proposals to make trade and development instruments work hand-in-hand to help reduce poverty across the world. The Commission proposed a number of ways to improve the effectiveness of EU trade and development policy, including reforming the EU's preferential trade schemes to focus more on the poorest countries and stepping up negotiations on free trade agreements with developing country partners; helping to tackle the real barriers to trade. The 2012 report on aid for trade is annexed to the wider Annual EU Accountability report on Financing for Development aid for trade is contained in the annex to the more comprehensive annual report on EU accountability. (AN/transl.fl)