Aid for Trade: Supporting the Use of Standards

As a complementary activity to the WTO’s Doha Round of trade negotiations, the Sixth Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong, China, in 2005 mandated that technical assistance and capacity-building activities needed to be expanded so that developing countries could take better advantage of the opportunities opened up by trade liberalization.With traditional barriers to trade such as tariffs and quotas being progressively eliminated, the ability to comply with technical regulations and use international standards has emerged as a key factor for success in integrating into international markets. This paper focuses on the potential of providing assistance to Governments and businesses for the setting of and complying with product standards as part of the AId for Trade initiative.