Aid for Trade Facilitation

Does foreign aid spent on trade facilitation increase trade flows of developing countries? There is an on-going and high profile discussion of aid-for-trade associated with the Doha negotiations of the World Trade Organization. There continue also...

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Main Authors: Helble, Matthias, Mann, Catherine, Wilson, John S.
Format: Policy Research Working Paper
Language:English
Published: 2012
Online Access:http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20090928110357
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4255
id okr-10986-4255
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-42552021-04-23T14:02:16Z Aid for Trade Facilitation Helble, Matthias Mann, Catherine Wilson, John S. Does foreign aid spent on trade facilitation increase trade flows of developing countries? There is an on-going and high profile discussion of aid-for-trade associated with the Doha negotiations of the World Trade Organization. There continue also questions about how best to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The analysis in this paper explicitly considers how to target aid most effectively to increase trade a fundamental question related to the crisis and policy debate over restarting the world trading system. Using detailed data on aid flows from the OECD, the analysis here estimates the responsiveness of trade flows to specific types of foreign aid. The findings indicate that aid directed toward promoting trade enhances the trade performance of recipient countries: a 1 percent increase in aid directed toward trade policy and regulatory reform (amounting to about US$11.7 million more such aid) could generate an increase in global trade of about US$818 million. This yields a "rate of return" on every dollar of this type of aid of about US$697 in additional trade. As the dollar aid flow is relatively small, such targeted aid mitigates concerns about absorptive capacity and real exchange rate appreciation, which may accompany larger disbursements. 2012-03-19T19:12:43Z 2012-03-19T19:12:43Z 2009-09-01 http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20090928110357 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4255 English Policy Research working paper ; no. WPS 5064 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper The World Region The World Region
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
geographic_facet The World Region
The World Region
relation Policy Research working paper ; no. WPS 5064
description Does foreign aid spent on trade facilitation increase trade flows of developing countries? There is an on-going and high profile discussion of aid-for-trade associated with the Doha negotiations of the World Trade Organization. There continue also questions about how best to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The analysis in this paper explicitly considers how to target aid most effectively to increase trade a fundamental question related to the crisis and policy debate over restarting the world trading system. Using detailed data on aid flows from the OECD, the analysis here estimates the responsiveness of trade flows to specific types of foreign aid. The findings indicate that aid directed toward promoting trade enhances the trade performance of recipient countries: a 1 percent increase in aid directed toward trade policy and regulatory reform (amounting to about US$11.7 million more such aid) could generate an increase in global trade of about US$818 million. This yields a "rate of return" on every dollar of this type of aid of about US$697 in additional trade. As the dollar aid flow is relatively small, such targeted aid mitigates concerns about absorptive capacity and real exchange rate appreciation, which may accompany larger disbursements.
format Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
author Helble, Matthias
Mann, Catherine
Wilson, John S.
spellingShingle Helble, Matthias
Mann, Catherine
Wilson, John S.
Aid for Trade Facilitation
author_facet Helble, Matthias
Mann, Catherine
Wilson, John S.
author_sort Helble, Matthias
title Aid for Trade Facilitation
title_short Aid for Trade Facilitation
title_full Aid for Trade Facilitation
title_fullStr Aid for Trade Facilitation
title_full_unstemmed Aid for Trade Facilitation
title_sort aid for trade facilitation
publishDate 2012
url http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20090928110357
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4255
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