Why aid-for-trade failed

The West has monopolised knowledge products and discourses on the least developed countries’ trade vulnerability.

It has been 20 years since the 2005 Hong Kong Ministerial Meeting recognised that developing and, mainly, least developed countries (LDCs) cannot meaningfully participate in the global trading system as envisaged while establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO) without “some kind of support” to enhance their trade capacity. This gave birth to the idea of Aid for Trade (AfT). The WTO claims that AfT is particularly helpful to the LDCs, which “face a range of supply-side and trade-related infrastructure obstacles which constrain their ability to engage in international trade.” In theory, it mobilises resources to address the trade-related constraints identified by these countries.