Responding to an invitation of the President of the Inter-American Development Bank, Mr. Luis Alberto Moreno, distinguished authorities of the region met at the IDB Headquarters, the Deputy-Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Affairs and Development of Barbados, Mia Mottley; the Technical Secretary of the Presidency of Dominican Republic, Temístocles Montás; the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Alejandro Foxley and the Minister of Trade, Industry and Tourism of Colombia, Jorge Humberto Botero. The Director General of the World Trade Organization, Pascal Lamy (videoconference), the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Rodrigo Rato y Figaredo and the Vice President of the World Bank, Danny Leipziger also attended the meeting.      

In this meeting, that took place on September 11^th,  the importance of Aid for Trade was emphasized as an instrument to enhance the participation of developing countries in world trade through the provision of trade-related capacity building to negotiate and implement trade agreements, trade-related infrastructure, supply-side capacities and, more generally, facilitation of trade-related adjustment. The participants stressed that trade and integration into the global economy are crucial for long-run growth, development and poverty reduction for all our countries, and particularly for the smaller ones.

President Moreno highlighted the importance of this Initiative for Latin America and the Caribbean countries and restated the Bank’s commitment to continue playing a key role in shaping the Aid for Trade global agenda to ensure that the particular needs of the region are taken into account.

The distinguished personalities of the international institutions and countries of the region acknowledged the active role of the Inter-American Development Bank in this Initiative and its experience in delivering trade related technical assistance. They also stressed the importance of this event given the forthcoming IMF/WB Meeting of the Board of Governors in Singapore and the meetings of the WTO General Council where the future Aid for Trade agenda will be discussed.

After this meeting the illustrious authorities of the Governments of LAC participated in the opening session of the Regional Policy Dialogue on Trade and Integration with the Deputy Trade Ministers of the region. In this meeting they discussed ways in which Aid for Trade could be operationalized given the needs of their countries. President Moreno highlighted the importance of the Regional Policy Dialogue as a key instrument to strengthen the dialogue between the Bank and its clients.

Source: iadb.org