Barbados-led trade declaration adopted

by SHAWN CUMBERBATCH

shawncumberbatch@nationnews.com

BARBADOS has made history at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in partnership with Australia.

After two days of sessions for the 10th Global Review Of Aid For Trade held at the WTO’s headquarters, the organisation’s committee on trade and development on October 30 adopted a declaration on partnerships for trade and development, which was piloted by the two member states.

It marked the first time in 20 years of the aid for trade initiative that a multilateral outcome of this magnitude was achieved.

Aid for trade was launched at the fifth WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong in 2005 “to help developing economies benefit from market access opportunities offered by the multilateral trading system”.

The adopted Barbados-Australia declaration now repositions the initiative as “aid for trade: partnerships for trade and development”.

Matthew Wilson, Barbados’ ambassador and permanent representative to the WTO and other international organisations in Geneva, told the closing session of the Global Review Of Aid For Trade that the declaration “aims to push the needle forward by creating a space for developing countries, including least developed countries, small vulnerable economies, small island developing sates and landlocked developing countries to better understand and use new forms of financing such as blended finance”.

Sources of financing

“We hope to work with all members moving forward to showcase best practices of traditional aid for trade, private sector collaboration, South South and triangular corporation, and methodologies to access and benefit from new sources of financing,” he said.

Wilson underscored the need to reverse the decline in official development assistance for trade “so as to ensure developing and least developed country members are able to participate and access the multilateral trading system”.

“Barbados calls on all funders to honour their commitments to deliver official development assistance and aid for trade and to work with developing countries to help showcase why aid for trade matters and why it works,” the ambassador said.

He also hoped that moving forward “we can also drill down into the important role that the private sector can play in creating markets, technology transfer, knowledge transfer, and financing and investing in developing country priorities”.

WTO Director-General Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala deemed the declaration’s adoption “an example of how we are working to renew the WTO – brick by brick”.

“Members made this declaration possible. The challenge now will be to make it count – to work together to do much more for growth and development worldwide. So let us carry today’s spirit beyond this room into greater opportunities people can see – and seize,” she said.

Peru’s ambassador to the WTO, Elmer José Germán Gonzalo Schialer Salcedo, who chairs the committee on trade and development, called it “a result of active engagement of all members”.

“The leadership of Australia and Barbados has been exemplary. This is the first multilateral outcome on this topic after 20 years, and it gives a renewed impetus to this initiative,” he said.

The declaration pushed by Barbados and the Australian delegation, led by its WTO ambassador James Baxter, was supported by CARICOM, African Caribbean and Pacific States, the African Group and least-developed countries.

The delegations from United States and India also “worked closely with Barbados and Australia in the home stretch”, Wilson said, while recognising their support.

BARBADOS AMBASSADOR to the World Trade Organisation, Matthew Wilson

( left),

and his Australian counterpart James Baxter welcomed the adoption

of the declaration. (WTO Picture)