Trade monitoring
Supporting development and building trade capacity
The WTO aims to help developing countries build their trade capacity and allows them a longer time to implement trade agreements. Hundreds of training courses are organized each year for officials from developing countries.
Membership
The WTO currently has 164 members. The accession process for new members promotes their integration into the global economy.
Foreword
This report is published in the context of the joint OECD-WTO Aid for Trade Monitoring and Evaluation exercise which underpins the WTO’s 8th Global Review of Aid for Trade on “Empowering Connected Sustainable Trade” (July 2022). This is the eighth volume of the Aid for Trade at a Glance series.
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.