DEPARTMENT FOR
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT News Release issued by COI News
Distribution Service on 8 June 2009
An early-warning
system to help guard against nations turning to protectionist
policies during the global recession is launched today as part of
the UK Government's ongoing commitment to open trade.
Speaking at an international conference to mark the start of the
first-ever World Trade Week UK, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson
and International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander said
that defending open trade remained the most powerful means of
rebuilding global prosperity and fighting global poverty.
Lord Mandelson underlined the UK's commitment to keep global
trade flowing as he announced that the UK is co-financing a new
independent anti-protectionism watchdog. Global Trade Alert will
unite a worldwide network of think tanks to provide governments
with independent analysis of trade-distorting policies. It will
produce evidence of the damage protectionist policies are doing
and advise on the least protectionist ways to provide support and
stability to economies through the downturn.
Douglas Alexander demonstrated the UK Government's
determination that the poorest countries should be assisted in the
global economic downturn as he announced that funding for Aid for
Trade has increased to £800 million - an increase of 60 per cent
since 2005.
Aid for Trade funding has been spent delivering a range of new
projects, such as the North South Corridor which is helping to
improve transport and trading links across eight African countries
by upgrading roads and improving border crossings.
Lord Mandelson said:
"Calls for protection from imports are always made most
loudly during times of recession.
"New barriers to global trade are a sure-fire way to make
the global recession longer and more painful that it might
otherwise be. Now more than ever, we need to stand firm and defend
open trade.
"The Global Trade Alert will complement the work of the
World Trade Organisation and others on behalf of the G20, as well
as advocating the importance of free trade."
Secretary of State for International Development Douglas
Alexander said:
"An economic downturn hits the world's poorest people
the hardest and it's therefore more important than ever that
we keep international trade flowing at this time.
"World Trade Week UK is an important opportunity to
demonstrate how vital trade is in helping people in developing
countries to earn their way out of poverty.
"Aid for Trade means that we can help many more people
across Africa to have a better opportunity to make a living
through trade by improving access to markets, upgrading transport
and infrastructure and making borders more efficient."
The Global Trade Alert will complement the World Trade
Organisation's G20 commitment to monitor protectionism by
providing real-time alerts. The website will monitor not just
tariff barriers - which are heavily constrained by WTO rules - but
non-tariff barriers and national crisis measures adopted by
countries in response to the downturn.
Notes to editors
1. World Trade Week (June 8 -12), the first event of its kind in
the UK, will highlight the importance of global trade in creating
jobs and growth in the current economic climate. It is part of a
Government drive to maintain open and fair markets and resist
protectionism in the face of a global downturn and falling
international trade flows. Visit the website for more information:
http://www.dfid.gov.uk/worldtradeweekuk
2. The Global Trade Alert will be run by the Centre for Economic
Policy Research, which will monitor protectionist activity and
coordinate input from leading academics and policy makers. The
real-time monitoring website will go live today (June 8) http://www.globaltradealert.org
3. The Trade Policy Unit is one of a number of partners working
with the CEPR, including the Canadian Independent Development
Research Centre, the World Bank and the Centre for International
Governance Innovation.
4. DFID spent around £800m as Aid for Trade according to our most
recent statistics, which represents an important part of
DFID's overall budget and an increase of about 60% since 2005.
5. These investments will reduce the costs of trade for African
goods, result in faster flows of better quality goods across
borders and higher export income. The North South Corridor is the
most recent and prominent example of our new push with UK putting
forward £100m and helping mobilise some $1.2bn from the broader
donor community for investments along one of Africa's busiest
and oldest trading routes.
6. We will also provide £12.5m towards a newly established World
Bank Trade Facilitation Facility - which will be officially
launched during WTW - to help countries move goods across borders,
quicker, cheaper and safer.
DFID, the Department for International Development: leading the
British government's fight against world poverty. One in five
people in the world today, over 1 billion people, live in poverty
on less than one dollar a day.
Information Department 1 Palace Street, London SW1E
5HE.
Website: http://www.dfid.gov.uk
Public enquiries 0845 300 4100 (overseas +44 1355 84 3132)