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Abstract
The contemporary global Aid for Trade (AfT) agenda emerged out of world trade negotiations and it could have profound implications for the future of development aid, depending on how it is interpreted. The European Union (EU) has recontextualised this global agenda to suit its own approach to trade and development; specifically a focus on regional integration, and free market but ‘pro-poor’ development models. AfT is ascribed a variety of purposes in EU texts and its use continues to adapt as the EU's trade and development policy evolves. Institutionally the AfT framework has not strongly affected EU processes, organisational structures or methodology. A study of the use of EU aid for regional integration reveals dissonance between its development relationship and its trade policies while a focus on pro-poor AfT reveals a lack of capacity. Overall, there are tensions not just between discourse and practice but between different discourses of the EU.
Notes
1. Some highly debatable proposals are made here about reclassifying existing aid. For example, it argues that support for fiscal reforms could be classified as support for adjustment and hence AfT (ibid., p. 5). It is safe to assume that this is not what developing countries had in mind.
2. There is a small AfT programme managed by the Trade DG also.
3. This could be because aid strategies are supposed to be based on partners' trade–development strategies but trade may not be a high priority in some cases.
4. This refers to aid from the EU budget and the EDF although the report also covers member state spending.
5. This is still significantly higher than the EU member states (which averaged a proportion of 15% in this period).
6. In delineating the purpose of aid it is best to focus on immediate outputs and impact as otherwise any eventual outcome can be claimed, which makes any discussion meaningless.