Aid for Trade (AfT) has become a major item on the international trade and development discourse. This is to a large extent in response to concerns expressed by developing countries and economies in transition with regard to their capacities to implement trade agreements, especially WTO agreements, and undertake necessary adjustments to increase net development gains from emerging trade opportunities. In this World Report, major UN agencies active in development cooperation and longstanding providers of trade-related technical assistance and capacity building discuss ways to sustain the momentum towards the operationalization and implementation of the AfT initiative and the supportive role to be played by the UN system. This is consistent with UN's role in promoting development and helping to achieve poverty reduction, as committed in the Millennium Declaration and the 2005 World Summit Outcome. The Report should be of particular interest to government officials, officials of regional organizations, representatives of the private sector dealing with trade agreements and negotiations, civil society and academia. Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General of UNCTAD Lakshmi Puri is Acting Deputy Secretary-General and Director of the Division on International Trade and Services, and Commodities at UNCTAD in Geneva. Philippe De Lombaerde is Associate Director of United Nations University (UNU-CRIS) in Bruges. In collaboration with: UNCTAD, ECA, ECLAC, ESCAP, ESCWA, UNECE, UNIDO, UNDP, UNEP

Based on a rich set of experiences with aid for trade projects and programmes, this study finds that regional aid for trade offers great potential as a catalyst for growth, development and poverty reduction and recommends greater emphasis on regional aid for trade to spur regional integration.

This aid for trade monitoring report examines trends and developments presenting a comprehensive analysis of donor and partner country engagement. In addition, it addresses the regional dimension and provides fact sheets that help in assessing the outcomes and impacts.

Despite troubled trade negotiations, global trade—and trade policy—will thrive in the twenty-first century, but with a bow to the past. Is the multilateral trading order of the twentieth century a historical artifact? Was the creation of the World Trade Organization in 1995 the high point of multilateral cooperation on trade? This new volume, edited by Bernard M. Hoekman and Ernesto Zedillo, assesses the relevance of the WTO in the context of the rise of China and the United States' turn toward unilateral protectionism. The contributors adopt a historical perspective to discuss changes in global trade policy trends, adducing lessons from the past to help understand current trade tensions. Topics include responses to U.S. protectionism under the Trump administration, the policy dimensions of trade in services and the rise of the digital economy, how to strengthen the WTO to better negotiate new rules of the game and adjudicate disputes, managing China's integration into the global trade system, and the implications of global value chains for economic development policies. By reflecting on past episodes of protectionism and how they were resolved, Trade in the 21st Century provides both context and guidance on how trade challenges can be addressed in the coming decades.

As the fourth industrial era evolves, the role of blockchain technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and machine learning in transforming national commerce cannot be overemphasized, especially with the expansion of e-commerce in Africa. In other words, technological advancement and innovation are becoming essential to many aspects of Nigerian businesses, thereby considerably enhancing trade and productivity. This book provides a primer on the role that digital technology may play in Nigeria’s trade flows, and the implications for enabling an economy-wide deployment of digitization in trade facilitation. This book analyzes the importance of STI’s contributions to the Nigerian economy, focusing on the transition to digital solutions and their potential to significantly increase trade and commerce. Since AfCFTA’s 2018 launch, academic and political responses to the automation of business have increased. Further, business promotion, aid-for-trade, regional integration and trade facilitation issues are at the forefront of business development policy and intellectual discourse in Nigeria. This book details Nigeria’s business opportunities, capacities and challenges with a special interest in sustainably enhancing the nation’s business ecosystem in the digital age. Through the examination of trade facilitation policies, programs, tools, models and technologies, this book demonstrates Nigeria’s need for strategic public-private partnership in digital trade to foster a more sustainable business future.

This book contributes an original theory to understanding human rights and international trade. It offers the ‘governance space’ framework for analysing the linkages and normative relationships between the multilateral trading system (MTS) and human rights regimes. Drawing upon key case studies, the author identifies connecting strands as also gaps in linkage issues. He further examines the ‘right to development’ approach to resolve tensions between these two regimes and demonstrates how the approach may be the most appropriate road map to finding sustainable solutions in balancing human rights and equitable free trade in a complex globalised world. Presenting new legal analyses informed by current debates drawn from international organisations – the World Trade Organization, United Nations, International Labour Organization – governments, civil society and academia as well as global commitments such as the Sustainable Development Goals, the book proposes a systematic and holistic policy intervention. This timely and transdisciplinary text will be of great interest to academics, students and scholars of human rights, international trade, international law, development studies, public policy and governance, economics, politics and international relations. It will also be useful to policymakers, think-tanks, human rights advocates, professionals, lawyers, civil society organisations, non-governmental organisations and trade experts.

This volume offers new perspectives on the evolution of the trade–development nexus in the European Union against dramatic changes in the international context. Without disregarding them, it seeks to go beyond the controversial and extensively researched Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). In particular, it focuses on the reform of the Generalised System of Preferences, the negotiation of various Preferential Trade Agreements, the application of trade sanctions, the allegedly ambitious agendas on decent work, Aid for Trade and aid untying, and the implications of the changing balance of power in global economic relations. Taking diverse approaches and, at times, reaching different conclusions, contributors directly or indirectly address one or more of the three general themes of the book: differentiation, coherence, and norms. This book was published as a special issue of Contemporary Politics.

Alfred Maizels' work on commodity trade and prices documented trends in a major area of international economic relations. This book elaborates the ideas in the tradition of Maizels' contributons, and discusses and extends these theories in relation to current problems.

Aid to developing countries started well before World War II, but was undertaken as an ad hoc activity or was delivered by private organizations. This changed after the War. In his Inaugural Address in 1949, the American President, Harry Truman, announced a “bold new programme for making the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped nations” (the so-called “Point IV” Plan). At that time it was thought that this support would be needed only for a limited number of years, comparable to the Marshall Plan assistance to Europe. But reality proved to be different: providing aid was a very long-term affair. Since the Fifties, the aid provided has changed at different occasions. In the beginning, aid concentrated on constructing infrastructure, such as roads, railways, dams, and harbours, in order to promote industrial development. In the Sixties, aid to agriculture was added, and in the Seventies aid to social sectors (Basic Needs) was also provided. The Eighties brought worldwide debt problems. Major donors applied structural adjustment policies; some called this the lost decade (década perdida). The Nineties saw the arrival of the first environmental considerations, and asked for attention for the role of women and good governance. The form of aid changed from projects to programmes and budget support. Describing the different aid forms of the last 65 years and analysing why aid changed from time to time are the subjects of this book. Professionals and students in the area of international cooperation will benefit from studying this history, as, at this moment, old concepts are reappearing or applied by new donors like China. Is the pendulum really swinging back, as Louis Emmerij at one point suggested?

The Aid for Trade Initiative has allowed for the active engagement of a large number of organisations and agencies in helping developing countries and especially the least developed build the infrastructure and supply-side capacity they need to connect to regional and global markets and improve ...