Finance and development ministers gathered in Singapore for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings pledged Monday to assemble over $5 billion (ca. 29,4 mia. kr.) a year in aid for trade and resume stalled trade talks by the end of the year, writes World Bank Press Review, Tuesday.
The ministers grouped in the development committee of the bank and the IMF expressed concerns over the de facto suspension of the Doha trade negotiations, and called on major trading members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to resume the talks by the end of the year.
British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, who is also the chairman of the International Monetary and Financial Committee of the IMF, said more than $5 billion (ca. 29,4 mia. kr.) in aid for trade had been committed by donor countries to help developing countries build their infrastructure and capacity to trade.
According to Brown, European countries and the European Commission will increase their assistance to a total of EUR 2 billion (14,9 mia. kr.) a year by 2010. Japan has promised $10 billion (58,9 mia. kr.) over three years and the US a total of $2.7 billion (15,9 mia. kr.) a year by 2010.
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz called on the United States to cut agricultural subsidies and better the lives of third world farmers, and on The European Union to reduce barriers to market access. And developing countries such as China, India and Brazil need to cut their tariffs on manufactures, said Wolfowitz.
