Ratna Sahay, assistant director of the Western Hemisphere Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
HONG KONG (Reuters):
THE UNITED States plans to double aid-for-trade grants to developing countries to US$2.7 billion per year by 2010, a U.S. Government spokeswoman said on yesterday.
She said U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman would announce the proposed increase in a speech on Wednesday to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Hong Kong.
The U.S. offer to increase the grants its provides developing countries to boost their exports is part of a proposed trade deal to open up agriculture, goods and services markets around the world.
The United States provided US$1.34 billion in aid-for-trade grants in 2005, and will ask Congress to increase that to US$2.7 billion by 2010, the spokeswoman said.
With deep differences still over how far to cut agricultural subsidies and tariffs, WTO countries are focusing much of their attention at this week's WTO meetings on a package to ensure the world's poorest countries benefit from a free trade deal.
Japan has promised to provide US$10 billion in trade-related loans and other aid to help poor countries with infrastructure and other projects to increase their ability to export.
Individual European Union countries will raise their spending on trade-related aid to ¤1 billion (US$1.2 billion) a year, the European Commission said on Tuesday.
That follows a commitment the European Commission, the EU's executive, made earlier this year to raise its own trade-related assistance for poor countries to ¤1.0 billion (US$1.19 billion) a year from 2007, up from about ¤800 million now. The Commission also provides about ¤800 million a year to fund infrastructure projects in poor countries.
