Date: 09/09/2010
Source: World Trade Organisation
Title: WTO: Lamy: Speech by the WTO DG at the International Trade Centre's World Export Development Forum, Chongqing, China

My dear friend Bo Xilai
Mister Mayor
Ladies and Gentlemen

Let me first thank Patricia Francis and the International Trade Centre not
only for organising this event, but also for organising it here in
Chongqing, a place whose development, under the strong leadership of Bo
Xilai and his team, has more and more to do with the opening of China to
international trade.

The WTO is the global organization whose members have entrusted it with
the task of regulating multilaterally the openness of world trade. We all
start from the principle that trade is a transformational driver of
economic growth, and of poverty reduction. In order for trade opening to
work for the benefit of all, strong multilateral disciplines are needed,
and this has been the purpose of the GATT and the WTO over the past 60
years.

Negotiating / administering / enforcing / these disciplines, these rules,
in order to create a fair level playing field among countries is WTO's core
business. Transparency, predictability, stability are our founding pillars
because they are what entrepreneurs need to trade
This system has been put to the test during the recent economic crisis.
And this "stress test" of ours has so far demonstrated the relevance and
the resilience of our system. As a matter of fact, thanks to our
multilateral disciplines, expected protectionism pressures during the
crisis have been contained .

So, the system works. International trade has been SO FAR kept open; as a
result; developing countries, and especially emerging countries, have
become today the main engines of world growth.

Contrary to what happened in the 1930s, when protectionism aggravated the
crisis, resisting protectionism this time has mitigated the crisis.

But the rules of the MTS still need improvement, which is the fundamental
challenge of the Doha Round. They have to be made more development friendly
and the negotiation has gone 80% the way in doing so. No surprise if
developing countries are now pushing hard for a rapid conclusion, an issue
which I have discussed recently with President Lee in Korea, and then with
Vice President Xi Jin Ping, and Minister Chen Deming here in China. They
all agree on the necessity to give the final political push, so that what
remains to be negotiated in order to find the right final balance is done
in the coming months.

But when we speak of increased market access and improved rules of trade,
it is mainly those countries already engaged in trade that have the most to
gain. But what about the others that have only small shares of world trade
and only trade in one or two main products or commodities? These include
many developing countries and most of the 49 least-developed countries, the
LDCs.

One point which has become increasingly clear is that market access alone
does not equal market entry. A range of other supply-side and trade-related
infrastructure constraints still prevent many developing countries from
enjoying the advantages built into the multilateral trading system.

This is why in 2005 at the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference, we launched
the Aid-for-Trade initiative. We needed a more comprehensive solution than
just providing training to trade ministries, however important this task.
We needed a more holistic view which encompassed the full range of tools at
our disposal to help developing countries to integrate into the global
economy.

Our progress since Hong Kong has been noteworthy. Since 2005, there has
been a turnabout in development financing for trade. Flows have increased
year-on-year and reached 42 billion US $ in 2008. Signs are positive that
this commitment is being sustained, despite the recently growing pressure
on public finances among the OECD countries. And new sources of funding are
emerging, notably among South-South partners.
Here, China is playing an increasing role. China is now an important
partner for developing countries. And I see it as a positive development
that more than 100 developing countries in Asia and the Pacific, Africa and
Latin America are learning from the experiences of China's transformation
and profiting from the vast expertise it brings.

But we also need to show impact. To respond to this need, I have placed
reporting on outcomes and impacts as the central theme of the Third Global
Review for Trade next July in Geneva. For us to sustain this progress, to
allow the G 20 to sustain momentum, we need better reporting on impacts and
outcomes.

Getting A4T to work better also means ensuring that developing countries -
and especially LDCs - express their demand for trade-related assistance and
that donor partners align their support with that demand. For
least-developed countries, the Integrated Framework has a crucial role to
play. The IF as it is called is actually a fully-fledged Aid-for-Trade
programme for LDCs.

The IF - which started in 1997 as a joint effort by UNCTAD, the
International Trade Centre, the World Bank, the IMF, UNDP, and the WTO -
has undergone substantial changes recently to improve the way it functions,
with the overall goal being to help LDCs to become active players in
international trade.

A large component of building more trade capacity is understanding how
trade can be integrated into a development or poverty reduction strategy.
For LDCs, this is often the first step toward identifying key constraints
to overall competitiveness, to see how they can insert themselves into
global supply chains in order to focus on sectors of export potential.

The Integrated Framework helps LDCs identify their trade bottlenecks, gets
participating agencies to use their areas of expertise to respond to the
pressing needs of LDCs and helps drive donor support to fund the various
projects identified.

Currently, funding levels for the Integrated Framework have risen
significantly with resources totalling more that 180 million US $ as of
March 2010. So far 23 donors are supporting the mechanism and 46 LDCs are
benefiting from it.

Let me conclude, Ladies and Gentlemen, in insisting on how important ITC
is for our WTO endeavours. Whether in A4T, or in the specific case of the
IF, ITC has become a major actor in fostering developing countries'
capacity to trade. As a parent of ITC, together with UNCTAD, we have been
increasing our financial and operational support of the work of ITC. And I
want to wholeheartedly thank Patricia Francis for her leadership in
responding vigorously to this drive. Streamlining ITC's operational
capacities in export development and building the necessary tools for
impact evaluation are the main strategic directions which WTO has given to
ITC. Your work in the coming days will have a crucial impact for the
attainments of these strategic goals, and I thank you in advance for your
contributions.