[ bréef ] (n)

1. concise: containing only necessary information,

without any extra details
[ bréefing ] (n)
for those who need a quick synopsis on a particular topic
2. to provide information about the
main facts of an issue or situation ..but are too busy to do their own research
Encarta World English Dictionary 26 May, 2010

Contents Topic: Aid for Trade [acronym AfT or A4T]

Food for Thought!
Food for “I feel we are establishing the foundations of a new dimension of development
thought! co-operation. One that can make a huge difference in empowering the poor
and in helping them to exploit the opportunities globalisation provides”.
Definitional Angel GurrÍa, Secretary General/OECD
issues
Aid for Trade defined
Global Context Aid for trade refers to a subset of development assistance designed to help these
developing countries address supply-side bottlenecks and boost their capacity to
take advantage of expanded trade opportunities. It comprises aid that finances
Author‘s Simple
trade-related technical assistance, trade-related infrastructure, and productive
Interpretation
capacity building. These categories of aid account for around a fifth of total sector
Application to allocable Overseas Development Assistance (ODA).
the Caribbean Source: http://www.oecd.org/document/52/0,3343,en_2649_34665_39145396_1_1_1_1,00.html

FYI Global Context

Links to Regional According to economic theory, trade is a driver of growth, which provides the
Agendas means to achieve economic and social development goals, such as, universal
education and poverty reduction. In addition to the external factors that act as
The Bottom Line
barriers to developing country exports, these countries also face numerous
obstacles in developing their own internal supply and trade capacity, in terms of
Recommended physical infrastructure and regulatory framework for competitive production and
Readings trade, business acumen and entrepreneurial skills among others. The severity of
these constraints became even more acute following the successive negotiations
―Implementing Aid for
that progressively liberalized global markets and trade.
Trade in Latin America
and the Caribbean- The Historically, developing countries have received development support through
National and Regional the ODA aid mechanism, also provided to multilateral institutions by official
Review Meetings 2008– agencies with the aim of fostering economic development and welfare‘. Aid for
2009‖ Trade is part of the overall ODA - grants and concessional loans - targeted at trade-
Author: IDB & WTO. related programs and projects. AfT is part of overall development aid, but with the
(http://idbdocs.iadb.org/)
specific objective of helping developing countries, in particular the least
―Aid for Trade at a
Glance – 2009: developed, to play an active role in the global trading system and to use trade as
Maintaining Momentum‖ an instrument for growth and poverty alleviation.
Author: WTO & OECD. Because trade is a broad and complex activity, A4T is broad and not easily
OECD/WTO 2009 defined. It includes technical assistance — helping countries to develop trade
ISBN WTO- 978-92-87- strategies, negotiate more effectively, and implement outcomes. Infrastructure —
03525-7 ISBN OECD- 978-
building the roads, ports, and telecommunications that link domestic and global
92-64-06903-9
markets. Productive capacity — investing in industries and sectors so countries can
diversify exports and build on comparative advantages. And adjustment assistance
Related Issues — helping with the costs associated with tariff reductions, preference erosion, or
declining terms of trade. Most Aid-for-Trade is disbursed bilaterally by donors or
 Fisheries Partnership through multilateral and regional finance and development organisations, such as
Agreement the World Bank and the regional development banks. The WTO and OECD
 Cash for Access
emphasize that AfT is not a substitute for trade opening (i.e., trade reform/
 Aid Though Trade
 Fair Trade iberalisation), but a necessary and increasingly important complement to assist
developing countries make and benefit from such trade reform.
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Briefs-2-Go ~ for those who need a quick synopsis on a particular topic but are too busy to do their own research.
CaRAPN, a Caribbean project of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the Technical
Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA). The views and opinions expressed herein, errors and omissions are
those of the author and not necessarily those of IICA or the CTA. Comments, corrections and additional information may
be sent to Diana.Francis@iica.int
 Briefs-2-Go – Aid for Trade

Understanding the Key Words in the Concept

Author’s Interpretation
The Encarta World English Dictionary defines:
Aid as:
1. give somebody or something help or with what is needed to achieve something;
2. money or material assistance provided by a government or international organization, especially in times
of crisis;
3. anything done or that assists somebody or something.

Trade as:
4. the activity of buying and selling, or sometimes bartering, goods
5. a specific area of business or industry
6. a skilled occupation, usually one requiring manual labour.

Applying the meaning of these Key Words to a Caribbean context implies that for Caribbean countries to
improve the skills of occupied in agriculture businesses for more effectively selling their products in markets
(trade) they need help, through both money and material assistance (aid).

A4T: Application to the Caribbean

The basic premise of AfT was that developing nations be supported so that they be able to take advantage of the
opportunities provided through international trade The vehicle to removing these barriers is AID! That aid was not
continuation of the protective blanket - preferential market access – under which developing county trade
originated and developed over time. The applicability of the AfT to the Caribbean can be assessed against its four
main pillars; that is the areas where A4T has been determined to be critical, and as well, the experience to date.
1. Trade policy and This has been a major area of focus in the Caribbean, both at the national and regional
regulation: levels. Since the conclusion of the Uruguay Round (UR) in 1994 and the establishment of the
Building capacity World Trade Organisation (WTO). Apart from budgetary resource limitations to actual
to formulate trade participation in the process, one of the reasons cited by Caribbean countries for their limited
policy, participate participation the UR was the lack of technical capacity and understanding, particularly in
in negotiations agriculture, for trade policy and negotiations issues and implementing trade agreements.
and implement Weaknesses in preparation of critical analyses, effective representation at negotiations and
agreements; complying with international obligations have persisted through to the WTO Doha
Development Round, and even during the negotiations for the EU Economic Partnership
agreement. Hence there is no doubt that support in this specific aspect of the AfT is
necessary. The only issue under consideration is the form in which such support is provided
i.e., specific activities, and related to this, the impact, based on the duration and
sustainability in terms of future capacity for trade policy and regulation.
2. Economic Infrastructural issues have been long associated with the high costs of production and
infrastructure: transactions that have rendered the majority of the Caribbean‘s exports, especially in
Investing in the agriculture un-competitive. Infrastructural problems persist today and continue to hamper
infrastructure – competitiveness strategies. While telecommunications have improved substantially, issues
roads, ports, tele- related roads and ports, and with the possible exception of Trinidad and Tobago, the high
communications, cost of energy, continue to hamper efforts to move products from Caribbean countries to
energy networks – global markets. Economic infrastructure is the responsibility of national governments.
needed to link Traditionally, roads, ports, telecommunications and other physical productive infrastructure
products to global was provided and maintained by the state. With the structural adjustment programmes (SAP)
markets; of the eights, the budgetary difficulties of most governments in the nineties and the fiscal
impacts of the more recent global financial crisis, several governments have experienced
great difficulties in both maintaining existing and attending to much needed infrastructural
expansion. It is expected that as in the past, support from the AfT facility will take the form of
concessionary financing for infrastructure development. The only possible differences maybe
the incorporation of some form of cost recovery through user fees, and public-private sector
partnerships where government provides the infrastructure and private firms assume
management responsibility.
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A4T: Application to the Caribbean

3. Productive Supply capacity has perhaps been the longest-running limitation to export expansion and
capacity building competitiveness on products from the Caribbean and support specifically addressing this
- Strengthening area will always be a continuous need. This has been especially so in agriculture, which has
economic sectors had numerous externally funded projects under various diversification, transformation and
– from improved modernization programmes, with the objective of ‗expanding supplies‘ both in terms of
testing primary commodities and value added products to drive exports, trade and economic
laboratories to growth. Similar efforts have been made to match expanded supplies with the technical
better supply capacity to enhance the quality and marketability of Caribbean products. Several member
chains – to states have had ongoing programmes to strengthen their agricultural health and food safety
increase (AHFS) capacities and systems based in part, on the Belize (BAHA) and the Canadian (CFIA)
competitiveness in models. However, limitations persist. The regional Caribbean Agricultural and Food Safety
export markets Agency (CAHSFA) launched in Suriname in March 2010, is expected to alleviate these
limitations and strengthen the AHFS capacity. More recently, interest in developing supply
and value chains in agriculture as the most appropriate vehicle to competitiveness has
peaked in the Caribbean, with at least four different organisations (including the Inter-
American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO), the Caribbean Farmers Network (CaFAN), and the CARICOM
Secretariat) promoting the need for market linkages and enterprise development for building
competitive agribusiness and integrated value chains as the platform for penetrating and
establishing presence in export markets. In that context, the importance of developing
market information systems has also taken on added significance, evidenced by the growing
interest in the region, in the NAMIS system developed and operated by the National
Agricultural Marketing Development Corporation (NAMDEVCO) of Trinidad and Tobago. The
A4T proponents promote value chains analysis as an important tool in shaping the AfT
strategic interventions, not only in this pillar, but in the other three as well.
4. Adjustment The difficulties and costs of adjusting from a preferential to a ‗free‘ trading system have been
assistance - major issues among Caribbean member states, which fuelled the insistence, by some
Helping with any negotiators, on retaining some form of preferences and in demanding compensation from
transition costs developed countries for losses incurred as a consequence of trade liberalisation. Taxes on
from liberalization international trade (Import taxes and other charges), a major source of government tax
– preference revenues, have been seriously affected, forcing many Caribbean governments to introduce
erosion, loss of alternative methods of revenue collection to stave off rising fiscal deficits. With preference
fiscal revenue, or erosion, economic activity in the major industries has contracted substantially and no other
declining terms of economic activity has yet emerged to fill the vacuum. This pillar deals with issues that will
trade. require more long-term solutions to economic and fiscal management in member states.

A note on ODA:
ODA: Official Development Assistance is a measure of government-contributed aid, compiled by the Development
Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 1969. The
DAC consists of 22 of the largest aid-donating countries.
In recognition of the special importance of the role which can be fulfilled only by official development assistance, a
major part of financial resource transfers to the developing countries should be provided in the form of official
development assistance. Each economically advanced country will progressively increase its official development
assistance to the developing countries and will exert its best efforts to reach a minimum net amount of 0.7 per cent
of its gross national product at market prices by the middle of the Decade. Developed countries will provide, to the
greatest extent possible, an increased flow of aid on a long-term and continuing basis. The aid is to come from the
roughly 22 members of the OECD, known as the Development Assistance Committee (DAC). ODA is basically aid
from the governments of the wealthy nations, but doesn‘t include private contributions or private capital flows and
investments. The main objective of ODA is to promote development.

From: International Development Strategy for the Second United Nations Development Decade, UN General Assembly
Resolution 2626 (XXV), October 24, 1970, para. 43
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 Briefs-2-Go – Aid for Trade
Links to Regional Development Agendas
The key and mutually reinforcing objectives of sustainable development are: Economic Competitiveness,
Environmental Sustainability, Social Equity, Good Governance, Rural Prosperity, Food and Nutrition Security
and Agricultural Positioning. The objectives of the AT are consistent with several of these sustainable
development objectives and the several regional policy and strategy initiatives currently being implemented in the
Caribbean. Some of the main ones and objectives are highlighted below for your information.
i. A ‘Consultancy to Develop the CARICOM Community
Agricultural Policy’ CCAP), executed by CARICOM
with by EU financing effectively commenced (23 April
2010). The general objective is to formulate the CCAP
and assist Member States in agricultural policy
formulation, planning, implementation and monitoring,
of national policy processes, in order to enhance the
achievement of the development goals and
objectives established for agriculture in the CSME.
This activity directly and indirectly contributes to achieving
all four pillars of the AfT, particularly Pillar 3.
ii. A feasibility assessment of establishing a CARICOM
Agriculture Modernisation Fund (CAMF) was initiated in
May 2010 in keeping with a request by CARICOM
Ministers of Agriculture for the CDB to assist CARICOM
in establishing a mechanism to attract funding from
CARICOM Member States, International Finance
Institutions, donor agencies, etc., for providing equity
financing, debt financing, and technical assistance
(TA) in support of public and private sector investment
in the Region‘s agriculture sector. The idea of such a
fund has its origins in the Jagdeo Initiative.
Based on the outcomes of the feasibility assessment,
operation of a CAMF will be essential to building
sustainability in actions under all 4 AfT pillars.
iii. Efforts to draft a Regional Policy for Food and Nutrition
Security (RPFNS) under the CARICOM-FAO project
funded by the Government of Italy, seeks accelerated
earlier this year with the aim to provide a clearly
articulated policy framework (for the period 2011-2050)
to address the major food and nutrition security (F&NS)
challenges in the Caribbean. While it is understood
that F&NS issues are not solely the responsibility of
agriculture, it is also understood that a dynamic and
competitive agriculture from farm to table can
substantially enhance household/national/regional
F&NS status.
The objectives and elements of the RPFNS can contribute
to, and benefit from activities and projects under all 4
pillars of the AfT.
iv. Consultancies towards the articulation of a Strategic
Plan for Regional Development (SPRD) were launched
in late 2008 as part of the process for implementing the
Single Development Vision for the CSME. The CARICOM
integration process is expected to be significantly
advanced by 2015. Agriculture and agro-tourism were
identified among the sectoral drivers of regional
economic growth. Given this framework, the next step
was the articulation of a SPRD to elaborate the specific
implementation policies and measures to facilitate
regional production integration, development and
economic transformation, known collectively, as the
provision of ‗Regional Public Goods‘. One ‗Regional
Public Good‖ has been determined to be intra-
regional agricultural production and trade.
Strategic directions provided by this SPRD could
potentially act as the base for determining projects under
AfT pillars 1, 2 and 3, with direct and positive impacts in
particular, on accelerating the agriculture’s efficient
transition from preference to free markets – Pillar 4.
In addition to the above profiled initiatives, there are
several other activities being undertaken by national
public sector agencies, NGOs and regional organisations
that seek to achieve similar or identical objectives as
those specified for the AfT. The regional efforts include:
 the farmer and rural development thrust of the
Caribbean Farmers‘ Network (CaFAN),
 the trade capacity building activities for public and
private sector being undertaken by the Office of Trade
Negotiations (OTN) of the CARICOM Secretariat, and
the Caribbean AgriBusiness Association (CABA)
project;
 value chain promotion and facilitation as a vehicle for
agricultural development in the Caribbean, being led
by IICA, FAO, the CARICOM Secretariat, among others,
These are just some of the ongoing activities in the region
that reflect and complement some or all of the objectives
underscored by the AfT mechanism. Of mention is that
most of these activities are being implemented through
externally-funded projects, and their ultimate objective is
to improve the skills and capacity of agriculture producers
and exporters to effectively participate in competitive
livelihoods and markets (trade) through the provision of
training in critical points along the value chain to reduce
dependence on foreign resources and assistance (aid).
This begs the question of how much knowledge,
understanding and collaboration exist within
these various efforts and those who direct and
mange use of the AfT facility in the Caribbean?
How are these different efforts coordinated and
complementary and, in turn, how are they
integrated into regional agricultural
development agendas?
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FYI: Some Facts on A4T in the Caribbean The bottom line!

(Caribbean includes Aruba, Cuba and the Dominican The A4T is not a new facility. It is a label given to
Republic)
development assistance within the overall ODA that
 Aggregate AfT was US$289 million during 2002–05;
has been in pace since the first Lomé Convention.
 Aggregate AfT increased by 10% to US$317 million in
2007; in the Caribbean is whether the specific activities defined
 Volumes received by countries varied considerably. are based on a ‗one size policy fits all‘ and whether in their
- Guyana - US$95 million; development and implementation, the activities reflect
- Haiti - US$55 million; more ‗give a man a fish‘ as opposed to ‗teach a man to
- Jamaica - US$51 million; fish‘. It is critical, that the process for determining the actual
- Five countries received US$0.2 million or less; activities (programmes and projects) emphasise the need
 AFT as % of total sector allocable aid: for them to be developed by and not for Caribbean
- Barbados: 77.3% stakeholders and the need to design and implement them
- Trinidad: 71.4% in a manner that genuinely builds capacity among
- Jamaica: 50.7% stakeholders. This is essential to maximise benefits and
- Suriname: 46.6 sustain any gains derived from participation in the AfT
- St. Lucia: 45.5% facility.
- Dominica: 42.6%
The 2009 WTO/IDB review noted that the impact of the
- All others ranged from 7.4% - 38.6%
financial crisis on the real economy and failure to conclude
 AfT in 2007:
the Doha Development Agenda risk jeopardizing the
- Trade related adjustments = US$ 316.8;
contribution of trade to economic growth and poverty
- Productive capacity AfT = US$191 million;
reduction in developing countries. Shortfalls in financial
- Economic infrastructure AfT = US$117 million; flows to developing countries due to a contraction in world
- Trade Policy and Regulations = US$ 10.1million. demand generally pose a greater risk to commodity-
 Caribbean‘s top priority areas in order of importance: producing countries. Combined with a dependency on
- competitiveness; tariff revenues, these developments will render budgets
vulnerable to potential reductions in trade flows. Aid for
- trade policy analysis,
Trade is even more critical in this environment. Feedback
- export diversification,
from the 2009 WTO/IDB Review provided some clear areas
- regional integration
for further design and successful implementation of AfT
 Other priority areas:
support to the reform process. These were:
- value chains
i. clear evidence of country and regional ownership of the
- network infrastructure AfT process,
- export diversification ii. firms now require support to meet higher industry (as
- trade facilitation opposed to WTO) standards;
- other transport iii. an acute need for assistance towards both soft
 Main priorities identified for improving AfT (knowledge, expertise, governmental and private sector
effectiveness: services) & hard infrastructure (transportation,
- greater say in design of AFT communications, and customs infrastructure needed to
- stronger donor focus on local capacity support efficient international trade);
development iv. sharing experiences creates incentives for countries to
- better predictability of AFT funding implement reforms;
- more extensive use of Budget Support v. value chain analysis can be used to shape an Aid for
- more regular joint-donor implementation actions Trade Strategy and
- more harmonized reporting requirements vi. more discussion is needed on the prioritization of Aid for
Trade related projects
- more frequent joint donor partner implementation
efforts
These are all issues that must also be seriously considered in
- more systematic use of joint donor-partner
the various regional initiatives highlighted above, especially
monitoring / evaluation
those now being defined, and also especially, at the
Extract from ―Implementing Aid for Trade in Latin America and national level, so that countries may make best use of this
the Caribbean- The National and Regional Review Meetings facility to further and accelerate their development goals.
2008–2009‖ by the IDB & WTO is provided for your information
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