Development and building trade capacity
Executive summary
The 2022 Aid for Trade Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) exercise takes place amidst crises of unprecedented magnitude significantly affecting trade and investment. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe human and economic losses slowing down and in some cases reversing hard won progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Countries lacking the capacity to implement large monetary and fiscal stimuli were hit hard experiencing widening inequalities. While 2021 showed signs of a swift recovery in early 2022 Russia’s war against Ukraine created a major humanitarian crisis and derailed economic growth prospects. Spikes in the price of energy and food caused by the war combined with rapidly rising inflation are posing serious food security risks in low-income countries (LICs).
Statistical note
According to the WTO Task Force on Aid for Trade projects and programmes are part of aid for trade if these activities have been identified as trade related development priorities in the partner country’s national development strategies.
Explanatory note
The aid-for-trade country profiles provide factual information aid-for-trade financing flows trade costs trade performance and key development indicators at the country level. The aim is to compare a performance in these four categories for the year 2020 as compared to 2006 the year of the inception of the aid-for-trade initiative and against country group benchmarks for these selected indicators. The aim of the country profiles is to stimulate debate on aid-for-trade effectiveness.
Trade finance in West Africa
A joint publication on “Trade Finance in West Africa” was launched by Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and International Finance Corporation (IFC) Managing Director Makhtar Diop on 12 October in Washington DC. Using the results of a survey of banks in the four largest economies of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) — Côte d’Ivoire Ghana Nigeria and Senegal — the publication assesses the shortfall in trade finance in these countries. It also outlines ways of removing obstacles to credit facilities and of unleashing the trade potential of the region.
Foreword
Trade finance—credit facilities used by importers and exporters to transact business—is important for enabling global trade. These instruments bridge the gap between when the exporter wants to receive payment for producing and shipping goods and when the importer receives them. Although trade finance is routinely provided by banks to importers and exporters in advanced economies developing countries face chronic shortages.
Estimating Total Trade Finance Assets: Methodology
In order to estimate the total value of trade finance in a country we have considered two alternative methodologies. One has been developed by the African Development Bank for its continental trade finance study. The other was developed by us and uses the relationship between the assets of banks in the country based on central bank statistics and trade finance assets identified in the survey.
ECOWAS4 Trade and Global Value Chain Performance
This annex includes additional exhibits on the four countries’ change in export market shares their export penetration and global value chain participation. These illustrations complement evidence discussed in Chapter 1.