We’re looking at trade in this issue of DACNews

What role does trade have in the development agenda? This is a crucial time for both trade talks and the aid agenda. So we’ve rounded up a selection of experts and leaders for not-to-be-missed insights.

Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Pascal Lamy writes exclusively for DACNews on the eve of the continuing Doha negotiations in Hong Kong.  His message to OECD country donors is clear: “Aid-for-trade must be a complement to, not a substitute for, ambitious results from the Doha Development Agenda…and Aid-for-Trade must not have to compete for existing ODA flows with other development and poverty reduction priorities…”

Donor assistance to trade capacity
in developing countries
has increased by 50%.

If more financing is required to build up trade infrastructure in developing countries, then those funds must be found, he argues.

Why has aid become such an important part of the trade story, asks OECD DAC chair, Richard Manning? Perhaps because people now know that many of the costs borne by exporters in the poorest countries are nothing to do with tariffs, quotas or rules of origins and everything to do with the costs of setting up a business in a developing country. Richard Manning goes on to look at whether any new aid-for-trade deals will mean more aid is spent on trade than would otherwise have been the case, and whether more will be spent now.

African countries want to grow and enjoy the benefits of rising incomes, says Chiedu Osakwe, Director of the Doha Development Agenda Special Duties Division in the WTO, writing exclusively for DACNews. “The challenge now is to stay the course and not bolt. In doing so, two things need to be borne in mind. First, the actual and potential development benefits from the Round. Second, to think the unthinkable, i.e. the cost of failure.” But he remains optimistic that members have already seen "the light that will shine from a successfully completed Doha Round".

On the other side farmers and their political allies in OECD countries have nothing to fear from a deal in Doha, says OECD Director for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Stefan Tangermann.  Under existing policies, it is the largest farms that get the most support, artificially high prices end up raising land prices making it difficult for young farmers to get a start, and barely 25 cents of each dollar spent on price support end up in the pockets of farmers.

Click here for headline stories in PDF.

Also in this issue...

Peer Reviews –  Belgium's aid reviewed

Main findings and recommendations.

What is a Peer Review?

In the Field

Nepal: aid 'business as usual?'

Jim Hradsky from the OECD DAC Secretariat on the difficulties of carrying out aid “business as usual” in a country in serious conflict.

News in Brief

• Here’s what you said about us… Key findings from survey into awareness of OECD DAC work

• Changing behavior in security reform: practical guidance for the field

• Launch of the DAC Evaluation Resource Centre

• Human rights and development - a new report

• New DAC publications:
    - Policy Coherence for Development: Promoting Institutional Good Practice
    - Fostering Development in a Global Economy: A Whole of Government Perspective
    - Agriculture and Development: The Case for Policy Coherence.

OECD DAC Statistics including Aid at a Glance charts for DAC members and recipient countries.

About Us

The OECD DAC  is the main global forum where bilateral donors, alongside multilateral donors, work together to achieve real development progress for poorer countries.

More information about OECD Development work.

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