Rural 21 (engl. Ausgabe 4/2016)

Focus 4/2016: Trade
In December 2005, the Aid for Trade initiative was launched at the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference. It was to enable developing countries to draw optimum benefits from global trade by assisting them in overcoming trade-related constraints. Today, just over a decade later, the success of the initiative is given a sometimes very mixed assessment. However, this has not been the case regarding its basic notion that trade can make an important contribution to sustainable economic development and poverty reduction provided that it can be made fair and inclusive. This is also reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals, in which the community of nations resolves to “correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets” (SDG target 2.b), to “increase Aid for Trade support for developing countries” (SDG target 8a) and to “significantly increase the exports of developing countries” (SDG 17, target 11). But it is also borne testimony to in the latest changes in development co-operation policy, which is increasingly focusing on trade and markets. The approaches and instruments applied in the context of agriculture and rural development are presented in this edition of Rural 21.