*EPF317 09/10/2003
Text: USTR: Poorer Countries Need Trade Capacity to Share Trade Benefits
(Developed countries must help poor nations to build it, Zoellick adds) (1090)

Building trade capacity in developing countries is a critical part of trade liberalization, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Zoellick says.

In September 9 remarks to a panel at the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial conference in Cancun, Mexico, he said that developed countries must help poor nations to take advantage of trade.

Announcing a new U.S. contribution to a WTO trade-related fund, Zoellick said, however, that governments alone cannot do the job and both the private sector and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) need to be involved to make capacity-building effective.

Following is the text of Zoellick's prepared remarks to the panel:

(begin text)

Ambassador Robert B. Zoellick
United States Trade Representative
Introductory Remarks before Panel Discussion On
U.S. Trade Capacity Building Efforts
September 9, 2003

Cancun, Mexico

Well, I want to welcome all of you here. And now that we have a number of friends from Bahrain, we're very delighted to have that. What we've learned in the course of our trade negotiations is that part of the job is to try to reduce barriers and open markets and create opportunity. But a critical part is to try to build the capacity for trade. Because in addition to breaking down the formal barriers, we have to enable people to be able to take advantage of trade. And here I want to thank Mary Ryckman, in particular, who has done a fantastic job in terms of trying to coordinate and work with many other people -- and AID [U.S. Agency for International Development] in particular, who have been our partners in this effort.

And the benefits for developing countries can be quite significant. As the World Bank research revealed during the course of the 90s, countries that pursued a liberalizing course grew about three times as fast as those that did not open markets.

And just to take some recent examples, Vietnam, which started a process of opening during the course of the 90s has increased its per capita income and cut its absolute poverty rate in half. Uganda has cut poverty by some 40 percent with an open trade policy.

Now, when we focus on trade capacity building, we tend to look at three elements: one, steps that can help countries be able to take part in the negotiations, have the capacity and the teams and the expertise to negotiate. Second, the implementation process, as a lot of these rules are somewhat complicated, particularly in areas like sanitary and phytosanitary standards or some of the things in intellectual property. Third, the broader links to development and the civil society agenda.

We're very proud that the United States is the largest single country donor of trade capacity building funds. In fiscal year 2003, we're now up to 752 million dollars: that's an 18 percent increase over the figure for last year. And just to give you a little sense of the breakdown, that includes some 174 million dollars for the Middle East and North Africa, 150 million dollars for Latin America and the Caribbean, 133 million dollars for Sub-Saharan Africa, 92 million dollars for Asia, 84 million dollars for the former Soviet Republics, 65 million dollars for Central and Eastern Europe, and some 53 million dollars for non-targeted global projects.

And we also try to help the WTO program, which has a special trade capacity element. So I'm pleased to announce today that the United States will be contributing an additional million dollars to the WTO Global Trust Fund for trade-related technical assistance. We had donated another million dollars earlier this year, so this is a total of three million dollars donated to that specific fund.

However, as important as the money is how you make this work on the ground. That's one reason why we wanted to put together a panel today, to give people a sense of the practical ways in which capacity building works.

And we've also acknowledged that this is a learning process. For us, and for the developing countries that are our partners. We've given you a pamphlet that gives you a little feel for some of the things we've done in the trade capacity building world. And we've learned that an important component is not only the government, but the private sector. So I want to make sure I have a chance to introduce -- in addition we've got [Deputy USTR] Linnet Deily, who all of you know as our very able ambassador in Geneva, who was the key person in just resolving this access to medicine and TRIPS [Trip-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights] issue. Adolfo Franco, who has been a wonderful partner for us in AID. Mara Burr, who has been a good partner with us with the Humane Society of the United States. And Scott Miller from P&G [Procter and Gamble].

I want to emphasize their role in particular, because -- they'll have a chance to tell you more about this -- but, to really make capacity building work in countries, it needs to go beyond the public sector and try to see how we can have NGO partners help us. In areas like transparency, but also some ways that you can have some win/win ventures -- the Humane Society has been working on in terms of trying to help develop new products that have an element about particular animal welfare, but frankly, with some of the efforts that consumers have: add a value-added product for the producers, and also something that people in the developed countries are often interested in paying a premium price. For some of the work that's done in terms of eco/tourism and some of the related aspects. And similarly, Scott Miller from Procter and Gamble has been a fantastic partner of ours throughout. This is a good example of a company that has a strong sense of public and social and civic responsibility because they want to have good partnerships in the places that they do business. And so I was really delighted they could join us as well.

So, my purpose was just to get this sort of launched. I apologize that I am kind of running in and out, but believe you me: It's harder on me than it is on you. So anyway, I just want to thank you all for being with us and thank you for joining us and for the support you give us every day.

(end text)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

Return to Public File Main Page

Return to Public Table of Contents