WTO adopts Aid for Trade partnerships declaration

World Trade Organization members adopted a declaration on October 30 to reshape their Aid for Trade initiative around partnerships for trade and development. India also presented its capacity-building experience at the Geneva review.

The declaration supports technical assistance for implementing WTO rules and seeks additional resources, including grants, concessional finance and blended finance for private-sector partnerships.

The WTO account lists the declaration text, WT/COMTD/AFT/2, as still to be issued. It does not announce funding allocations or new customs rules.

The meeting was the tenth Global Review of Aid for Trade and marked two decades of the initiative. Its opening on October 29 brought together ministers, development organisations and trade specialists to examine whether support for trade was reaching economies that still struggle to expand exports.

The financing problem behind the decision

A joint OECD-WTO report released at the review puts Aid for Trade disbursements between 2006 and 2024 at $795 billion. Africa received 38 per cent and Asia 35 per cent, while least-developed countries received 28 per cent. These are historical financing figures, not fresh commitments under the October 30 declaration.

The report says total disbursements reached $51 billion in 2024, up 2 per cent from 2023, as multilateral development banks offset reductions by bilateral providers. Its warning about the next period is conditional: bilateral Aid for Trade could fall about 22 per cent between 2024 and 2026 if current sectoral allocations continue.

Private money also reaches countries unevenly. Of private finance mobilised in trade-related sectors in 2024, 74 per cent went to middle-income countries and 6 per cent to least-developed countries. The report identifies a continuing difficulty in attracting commercial finance for activities such as trade policy-making. It also argues that support must reach beyond traditional border and infrastructure constraints. Digital connectivity and the ability to demonstrate compliance with technical standards are among the capabilities economies need as trade changes.

The opening discussion also stressed that long-term support needs to follow partner countries’ priorities. Japan International Cooperation Agency president Akihiko Tanaka pointed to investments in institutions and human capacity alongside infrastructure. These were arguments presented at the review, rather than a new timetable for implementing the declaration.

The opening programme included more than 30 member-led sessions on subjects such as value chains and trade facilitation. Regional discussions were intended to bring perspectives from Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas, while a trade solutions clinic connected practitioners with technical-assistance providers. The range of discussions reflected differences in the trade problems facing developing economies.

India’s capacity-building contribution

WTO members considered an Indian communication highlighting South-South and triangular cooperation. Its account cited the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation programme, or ITEC, as having helped strengthen the skills of more than 80,000 participants since 2014. That figure covers the stated period, not the programme’s entire history.

The Indian Embassy in Buenos Aires describes ITEC as a Ministry of External Affairs capacity-building programme established in 1964. Its published overview explains that training draws on Indian higher-education institutions and specialist facilities, with courses covering subjects including trade and international markets, quality management and entrepreneurship.

Training is delivered through more than one format. The embassy describes real-time online courses taught by Indian institutions, short policy-focused programmes for senior government executives and onsite assignments in partner countries. This background helps explain the skills-based cooperation referred to in India’s communication; it is not an announcement of new courses at the WTO meeting.

What partnerships can involve

UNIDO’s published programme for the same review illustrates the practical trade obstacles under discussion. One session was scheduled to examine how smallholders and smaller businesses can meet sustainability requirements and maintain market access, drawing on work involving cocoa in Ecuador. The programme describes intended discussion, not verified results from that session.

Another scheduled session focused on the Africa Trade Competitiveness and Market Access programme, funded by the European Union and implemented by UNIDO and the International Trade Centre. Its listed priorities included export competitiveness, standards compliance and regional value chains. These examples show why the review addressed producers’ ability to meet market requirements alongside access to finance.