Lamy urges more aid to raise trade capacity of poorest nations

28 Sep '07

3 min read

Director-General Pascal Lamy, in opening a pledging conference for “A New Enhanced Integrated Framework for Least Developed Countries” on 25 September 2007 in Stockholm, said “we are here today because we want to make sure that new opportunities that hopefully will result from the Doha Development Agenda — whether the duty-free and quota-free access to developed and developing country markets, the sharp reductions in agriculture subsidies in rich countries, including those on cotton, the elimination of export subsidies, the disciplines on fishery subsidies or the new rules on trade facilitation — translate into trade realities for the LDCs”. This is what he said:

Allow me to begin by thanking the government of Sweden for hosting this event and in particular, Ministers Gunilla Carlson and Ewa Bjorling for their tireless efforts to make this event a success. It is entirely fitting that this conference is taking place here in Sweden, which has always been at the forefront of efforts to help the world's poorest countries better integrate in today's rapidly changing world.

We are meeting here ten years after the launch of a major international initiative focused on helping the world's least developed countries successfully integrate trade into their development strategies. It was in 1997 that six international agencies represented here today, together with the donor community and the least developed countries launched the so-called “Integrated Framework”.

Ten years later it is important that we take a few minutes to reflect where these countries stand today in the multilateral trading system and their overall development situation in general.

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