Promoting Aid For Trade In Western Asia

Aid for Trade (AfT) has gained considerable importance and has become a major item on the international trade agenda 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 WTO Agreements and undertake necessary adjustments to increase net development gains from trade liberalization and emerging trade opportunities. The AfT initiative gained in relevance during the course of the Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations as developing countries faced increased adjustment and competitiveness challenges and difficulties in implementing existing and future World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements, as well as an inherent lack of supply capacity and trade-related infrastructure deficits and deficiencies.