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Concluding remarks by Jean-Marie Paugam, Acting Executive Director, International Trade Centre

10 July 2013
ITC News

Speech by ITC Deputy Executive Director, Mr. Jean-Marie Paugam
Aid For Trade Meeting, 10 JULY 2013

Merci Madame la Présidente,

A mon tour et au nom du Centre du Commerce International, je veux remercier le Directeur General Pascal Lamy, Mme la Directrice Générale adjointe Valentine Rugwabiza pour leur service à la tête de l'OMC et leur soutien constant à notre organisation. Soyez assuré que l'ensemble du personnel du CCI se mobilisera pleinement pour coopérer de la même manière avec l’Ambassadeur Azevedo et la future Direction Générale de l'OMC.

Madam Chair,

One of the greatest unsung songs of the Doha Round is the full recognition of Aid for Trade as a key pillar of the World Trade Agenda. While the concept and policies of development aid and trade had been opposed during more than forty years they can now be positively combined into one single policy. The Aid for Trade Policy is now fully established in the global development framework and its results increasingly well-measured and acknowledged.
ITC is the only multilateral agency which has been exclusively dedicated to this cause. We intend to continue to serve and innovate at the forefront of the aid for trade policy as demonstrated during the side-events that we contributed to during this global review. From these discussions, I am happy to report ITCs intention to intensify its efforts and increase its investment in two directions:

  • First, positive combination of export promotion and environmental strategies into sound and sustainable business models : our panelists have recognized that there is a lot of space to make gold with green in export promotion
  • Second, improved collection and dissemination of firm-level trade performance and employment data: to help SMEs connect to global value chains. We believe that there is an essential knowledge gap to fill in in that field. We think that filling this gap could deserve the mobilization of an inter-agency initiative based on the model that we already achieved in the past to share our knowledge on tariffs and non-tariffs measures. 

Thank you very much for your attention