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Aid for Trade

Volume 454: debated on Wednesday 6 December 2006

9. To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of his Department’s policy on Aid for Trade. (107825)

Aid for Trade aims to enable people in developing countries to trade their way out of poverty. It can be extremely effective. For example, DFID is providing £3 million to Lesotho for tax reforms that have already resulted in a 204 per cent. increase in revenue collection. UK policy is to work for substantial, monitorable increases in global Aid for Trade. In December 2005 donors committed to increasing spending to $4 billion by 2010, and agreed recommendations on how to do so effectively at the World Trade Organisation in October 2006. We will continue to work for full implementation of these commitments.