Eleven years after Afghanistan first submitted its application to join the World Trade Organisation, it officially acceded to the global trade group this week, at its 10th Ministerial Conference being held in Nairobi.
It’s taken a lot of work to get to this point – lots of small, painstaking steps to help Afghanistan steadily gain the strength and capacity to become the ninth least developed country to join the WTO since 1995. It’s exactly the kind of work that DfID established the Trade Advocacy Fund (TAF) to support. Since 2011, the fund, which is jointly managed by Crown Agents and Saana Consulting, has disbursed grants to countries and regional trade groups or for projects with global relevance, all with the common purpose of ensuring international trade agreements better reflect the interests of the poorest countries.
In the example of Afghanistan, you can see TAF’s impact front and centre. The Trade Negotiations Training and Capacity Support to Afghanistan project was one of the 58 grants that have been disbursed by TAF, helping to fund vital support to the government of Afghanistan to help it through the WTO accession process. This grant’s work began in September 2014, supporting Afghanistan’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry to effectively negotiate new trade and transit agreements that will expand trade and support an enabling environment for private sector-led growth and development. The grant funded training for the ministry’s staff on areas including the economics and law of international trade, the use of trade data, key international trade agreements and the preparation and delivery of trade negotiations. Furthermore the grant provided advisory services to the Afghan government in the lead up to this week’s historic MC10 conference.
With sustainability the operative word in virtually all development work these days, the grant also funded international experts to work with ministry staff to set out a Trade Negotiation Management Strategy, meaning that the impact of the grant will endure long after the money has been spent. Documenting the work that is being done by TAF is a vital part of the mission: if it isn’t documented, what hope is there of TAF making real cultural changes or of it becoming embedded in the fabric of the relevant country or region’s own trade habits? Since its launch, TAF has produced 174 analytical papers. These have allowed for important research to be carried out into issues of trade development that will help LDCs to better advocate their positions in bilateral, regional and global trade negotiations.
The impact of TAF on Afghanistan is clear and quantifiable, but much of its impact is seen in the leg work being done around the world to steadily bolster countries’ capacities for international trade negotiations. TAF-funded work has helped 701 beneficiaries around the world – a number, along with the number of analytical papers produced, that far exceeds the targets set for the fund. The effects of this work have been felt at the very highest levels of international trade negotiations:
- TAF has supported the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group in WTO negotiations since 2013 through provision of on-demand technical assistance, advice and coaching to ACP trade delegates in Geneva. This has enabled the ACP Group to become a key player in WTO negotiations, including in the run-up to the 9th WTO Ministerial Conference in Bali in 2013, resulting in a new multilateral trade facilitation agreement that reflects developing country needs and interests.
- Support from TAF to the Group of Least Developed Countries in Geneva has enabled it to become a proactive negotiating group in the WTO and to table a collective request on trade in services. As a result, 17 WTO countries – including the United States, China, India and Japan – have made binding commitments that give preferential market access to LDC services exports. More countries, including the European Union, are expected to notify their commitments in response to the LDC Group’s collective request.
- TAF is supporting the Advisory Centre on WTO Law (ACWL) until June 2016, helping the Geneva-based intergovernmental organisation to act as an “in-house” legal adviser for LDCs on issues such as WTO accessions and dispute settlement.
- TAF provided technical assistance to the African Union to support negotiations to establish the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) by 2017, which is considered a critical step in fostering African integration and could increase the share of intra-African trade by more than 50% by 2022.
While the fund closed for grant applications in September 2015, the work under the grants already awarded is set to continue throughout 2016.
Membership of the WTO will have clear, tangible and quickly-felt effects on Afghanistan’s economy. It will help to remove its vulnerability to the gouging of customs duties on its exports, allowing it to trade freely without discrimination. Afghan goods and services will be recognised and awarded most favoured nation treatment by the WTO’s 162 member countries. As the changes become embedded in the country’s trading landscape, Afghanistan will be able to attract foreign direct investment in various sectors, increasing job opportunities and reducing trade costs.
It is for advances such as these that TAF was first conceived. As well as Afghanistan, there are now many more other countries and regional trade groups that have greater confidence and capability to take to the world trade stage with stronger stances, louder voices and brighter economic futures.
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