Isolda Agazzi
8 July 2009
Geneva — Trade is positively linked to economic growth but trade policies alone cannot be relied upon to meet a country's poverty reduction objectives, admits a review of aid for trade that was compiled for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Moreover, "if the benefits of trade for development seemed to be assured at the launching of the Aid for Trade initiative, the crisis has changed the perception", acknowledges the review, which was made available at a meeting in Geneva on Jul 6-7 to assess progress with aid for trade since the launch of the commitments at the Hong Kong WTO ministerial meeting in 2005.
The review also concurs that "there is not a simple and general conclusion on the causal link between trade and poverty, be it directly between the two or through the impact of trade on growth and, in turn, on poverty". There are benefits attached to opening up economies but the evidence linking poverty reduction and trade is "weak".
In case studies where trade liberalisation helped with poverty reduction, inequality increased. Increased trade benefited elites in both developed and developing countries, exacerbating income inequalities, according to the review.
But, stated WTO director general Pascal Lamy, "if aid for trade was urgent in 2007, it is essential today. It is the investment that will allow many developing countries to prepare to exit the crisis by enhancing their trade capacity." He spoke on Jul 6 at the opening of the second Aid for Trade Review under the heading of "Maintaining Momentum".
In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, it is not easy to keep to the commitments made in 2005. This new programme, which is still rather obscure to outsiders, is meant to help developing countries improve their capacity to compete effectively in global markets and to adjust to trade reform and liberalisation.
Donors met their Hong Kong pledges until at least 2007. The joint WTO/OECD report affirms that, in 2007, aid for trade grew by more than 10 percent in real terms. Total new commitments reached 25,4 billion dollars.
The largest share of this amount went to Asia - 10,7 billion dollars committed in 2007 - but Africa is catching up at 9,5 billions dollars.
In low-income countries, most of the money is spent on addressing infrastructure needs, in particular roads and power, whereas in middle-income ones the focus is on building productive capacities, including trade development.
To conduct this assessment, questionnaires were sent to recipient countries. These have identified poor network infrastructure, weak competitiveness, little export diversification, insufficient trade policy analysis, and negotiation and implementation capacities as the main constraints.
Infrastructure is particularly an issue in Africa. "Uganda highlights the challenge of achieving harmonised standards and building shared infrastructure with its regional partners. Cameroon focuses on the need for regional transport corridors and stronger enforcement of rules of origin," states the report.
"Tanzania's regional priorities include trade negotiations, quality improvement and cross-border infrastructure. In the case of Mauritius, a small-island developing state, its main infrastructure challenges were addressed regionally through the establishment of a shipping line and warehousing system," according to the report.
Three regional projects have been launched to cope with the lack of infrastructure. The north-south corridor pilot project to improve road and rail transport in southern and eastern Africa, serving eight different countries, is the most impressive.
Indeed, regionalisation seems to be the way forward. Probably because of the difficulty in concluding the Doha Development Round, some 230 regional trade agreements were in force in 2008 and the WTO expects this figure to rise to almost 400 by 2010.
The construction of the corridor may help to change the perception of developing countries that aid for trade is not very effective in infrastructure building, despite its utmost priority.
Rather, they recognize its usefulness in trade policy analysis, negotiation and implementation, followed by trade facilitation - as shown by the simplification in customs procedures and improvement at port authorities in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi - and export diversification, like the improvement in Zambia's horticulture and floriculture sectors.
Mainstreaming trade into national development strategies is one of the most often undertaken measures. It recently happened in Mali, where the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) helped the national government to elaborate its first national trade policy.
Other concrete examples of aid for trade projects included: "Kenya's Revenue Authority received support for successfully computerising its various services.
"Tanzania's business sector programme has upgraded national standards laboratories, established an SME (small and medium enterprises) competitiveness facility and trained approximately 50 trade experts to a post-graduate level. Mali also cites a number of successful aid-for-trade projects to strengthen its business sector," the OECD/WTO report continues.
The crisis has certainly shifted needs and priorities. With trade in goods likely to diminish by nine percent in 2009 - a 10 percent decrease in developed countries exports and a two to three percent decrease in developing countries' exports - experts gathered at the WTO in March 2009 pointed to an unmet demand of trade financing of between 100 - 300 billion dollars.
To cope with this shortage of financing, Lamy announced the launching of the Global Trade Liquidity Pool in May 2009, an initiative by the World Bank Group, with initial commitments of five billion dollars from public sector sources that should be able to go up to 50 billion dollars over the next three years.
The crisis is also expected to boost other kinds of interventions that are still relatively small, like trade-related structural adjustment programmes to help developing countries cope with the costs associated with trade liberalisation, such as tariffs reduction, preference erosion, or declining terms of trade.
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MATTHEW 10:26 DON’T BE AFRAID OF THEM, FOR THERE IS NOTHING COVERED THAT WON’T BE REVEALED AND THERE IS NOTHING HIDDEN THAT WON’T BE KNOWN.
Remember the 120 ! in the Upperroom, Gideon’s 300, One(1) believer can chase 1,000 demons & Two (2) can make 10,000 run .
How many will 1 million chase ?
Here’s An abbreviated Spirit Bomb prayer that I’d like for us to say to God The Creator Of All :
OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN , HOLY IS YOUR NAME, YOUR KINGDOM COME , YOUR WILL BE DONE, IN EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN .
- In Jesus Name We Pray – Amen
Pray twice per day once around sunset & once around sunrise .
Have prayer lists which include Family, Chritians, Truthseekers ,& Worthy Causes , etc…
SOME OF OUR LEADERS OR UNDER DEMONIC INFLUENCE , SOME OF OUR
WORLD IS UNDER THE SAME,. OUR UNITED , CONSISTENT, CONTINUOUS
PRAYERS WILL HELP US TO SEE THROUGH JESUS’ EYES. REMEMBER , HE’S
THE HEAD, WE HAVE NO EYES, EARS, NOSE, MOUTH, ETC..WITHOUT THE
HEAD. THAT IS WHY WE WALK BY FAITH, NOT BY SIGHT, SOUND, TASTE
OR ANY OTHER NATURAL DISTRACTION. WE ARE SPIRITUAL WARRIORS !!!
Make a Habit Of Praying Twice a Day (Sunset / Sunrise). Have A Daily Prayer, Weekly
Prayer , Monthly Prayer, even Yearly Prayer ; keeping persons, organizations and causes
in mind that you’d like to pray for at these intervals of time ( Daily-Weekly-Monthly-
Yearly).
Some prayer list suggestions –
(DAILY PRAYER LIST ) -
Christian & Natural Family -
TOP-PRIORITY Persons, Causes & Oragnizations
(WEEKLY PRAYER LIST ) -
MID-LEVEL Persons, Causes & Oragnizations
(MONTHLY PRAYER LIST ) -
- Persons, Causes & Oragnizations ( For Example – Heads Of Countries)
(YEARLY PRAYER LIST ) -
LOWER LEVEL - Persons, Causes & Oragnizations
[God Bless You Readers To Want To Know And Seek To Know The Truth] - MAY GOD BE A HAVEN OF PEACE IN OUR TIME OF TROUBLE --
[This inspiring poem was featuring in the movie “Coach Carter ”]
Our Deepest Fear Is Not That We Are Inadequate, Our Deepest Fear Is That We Are Powerful Beyond Measure. It Is Our Light , Not Our Darkness That Most Frightens Us.
We Ask Ourselves, Who Am I To Be Brilliant, Gorgeous, Talented, And Fabulous ?
Actually Who Are We Not To Be ? You Are A Child Of God.
Your Playing Small Doesn’t Serve The World.
There Is Nothing Enlightened About Shrinking So That Other People Won’t Feel Insecure Around You.
We Are All Meant To Shine, As Children Do.
We Were Born To Make Manifest The Glory Of God That Is Within Us.
It’s Not Just In Some Of Us; It’s In Everyone.
And When We Let Our Own Light Shine We Unconsciously Give Other People Permission To Do The Same.
And As We Are Liberated From Our Own Fear, Our Presence Automatically Liberates Others
- Marianne Williamson -
[NOTE – BEING AFRAID AND REFUSING TO GET INVOLVED WON’T STOP US FROM DYING. BUT BEING AFRAID CAN PREVENT US FROM LIVING]
(Nkosi Sikeleli Africa )
God bless Africa May her glory be lifted high Hear our petitions .
God bless us, Your children God we ask You to protect our nation Intervene and end all conflicts Protect us, protect our nation, our nation.
From the blue of our heaven, From the depths of our sea, Over our eternal mountain ranges, Where the cliffs give answer.
Sounds the call to come together, And united we shall stand, Let us live and strive for freedom, In South Africa our land.
[Enoch Mankayi Sontonga]
[http://www.infowars.com/infowars.asx] / [gcnlive.com] / [http://alexjonesringtones.net/]
WAKE UP ! STAY UP MY BROTHERS & SISTERS ! BE SELF-SUFFICIENT IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
- Life Is a Game. Have Fun. [ Luke 18:17 / Isaiah 11:6 ]
INDEPENDENT FARMERS’ UNION IDEA
I'm an entrepreneurial sort of person and I got an idea along those lines that I believe many of us who are grassroots thinkers have been overlooking.
So here goes my idea :
a) We have all kinds of Farmers and Farms that are struggling to make a profit. I believe that they are struggling because they are farming under a kind of Third World system that advantages the persons who convert what farmers produce.
b) In most Third World countries , the First & Second World countries will only build enough infrastructure to allow shipment of RAW MATERIALS from their source(s) to the modes of shipping transportation used to transport the RAW MATERIALS to those First & Second World countries that will turn the RAW MATERIALS into processed goods.
* For example - They will build a railroad line of tracks from some Third World country's gold and diamond mines ( e.g. Zaire ) to the Giant Ships docked and waiting to carry them to processors and sellers such as De Beers, Coca-Cola , Cadbury's etc..
c) What kinds of RAW MATERIALS do Farmers produce and/or have access to :
* Gold - Rice , Cocoa ,Mangos, etc…
d) Major Problems stopping small farmers from taking advantage of the possibility of turning your products into a profitable business : LACK OF TIME
e) Solution - My Idea : Form an Independent Union Of Farmers . Having a Coop is great, but it’s only a way of further enriching the processors of our RAW MATERIALS.
* How would this work ?
1) Each Region would represent a chapter of this Independent Farmers Union
2) Generally speaking, each farmer would retain all of their rights ; just as they had before they joined the Independent Farmers Union .
3) The Independent Farmers Union would be finance collectively by individual members paying dues.
4) These dues which would be used to set-up business ventures in each Independent Farmers Union's Region.
Some Examples Of Businesses That could be set up
* Chicken Processing Plant, and restaurants that would sell the chickens could be supplied right their in each Independent Farmers Union's Region.
* Produce Markets
* Dairies
* Ice Cream Parlors (using fresh milk)
* Fast Food and/or Restaurants - featuring meat from various farm animals
* Supermarkets
* Chocolate Processors – instead of giving your cocoa to companies like Cadbury’s. What do companies like DeBeers, Coca Cola,Cadbury’s and others have that entitles them to get rich off of our Natural wealth ? NOTHING.. We empower them by our economic laziness !!!
5) The Independent Farmers Union's would need persons with expertise in areas concerning the setting up and running of these businesses on behalf of the Independent Farmers Union's.
WE ARE MAKING HUNDREDS WHILE GIVING AWAY BILLIONS TO OUR ECONOMIC SLAVE MASTERS !!!
THERE IS NO REASON WHY WE CAN'T TAKE CONTROL OF OUR OWN COUNTRY !
- FEED YOURSELVES SUGGESTION -
NEIGHBORHOOD COOP GREENHOUSES
ANOTHER SUGGESTION IS FOR THOSE LIVING IN THE CITY TO POOL
THEIR RESOURCES TOGETHER AND MAKE NEIGHBORHOOD COOP
GREENHOUSES . HERE YOU CAN GROW SOME KIND OF FOODS AND NOT
BE TOTALLY DEPENDENT ON GROCERY STORES.
HERE’S SOME EXAMPLES OF WHAT BLACK AFRICANS HAVE DONE :
BLACK AFRICAN INVENTORS AND THEIR INVENTIONS
The type of Invention is capitalized (e.g. TRAFFIC SIGNAL, MOTOR, etc..)
We Black Africans Can Be Self-Sufficient . Here are some major Black Africans who have had an impact on the world With their initiative These are INVENTORS .
This Listing includes The Inventor’s Name, Their Invention and in some cases the date the invention was recognized and the invention’s U.S. patent number.
* Sarah Boone - IRONING BOARD - April 26, 1892
* John A. Burr - LAWN MOWER
* Marie V. Brittan Brown - HOME SECURITY SYSTEM - Dec 2, 1969
* Buridge & Marshman - TYPEWRITER
* George Carruthers - X-RAY MACHINE
* George Washington Carver - PEANUT BUTTER - PAINTS – PAINT STAINS – ETC
* John Clark - TRACK ATHLETE TRAINER
* W.A. Dietz - SHOE
* Joseph Dickinson - PLAYER PIANO - ARM FOR RECORD PLAYER
* P.B. Downing - POSTAL LETTER BOX
* Charles R. Drew - BLOOD PLASMA STORAGE SYSTEM
* T. Elkins - TOILET (COMMODE)
* Robert Flemming Jr. - GUITAR
* Cathleen McCoy Garrett SIREN - HORN LIGHT INDICATOR
* George F. Grant - GOLF TEE
* J. Gregory - MOTOR
* Joanna Hardin - KEYBOARD STAND - Feb 23, 1993
* Michael Harney - LANTERN
* Solomon Harper - THERMO(HEATED) HAIR CURLERS
* Augustus Jackson - ICE CREAM
* B.F. Jackson - GAS BURNER
* H.A. Jackson - KITCHEN TABLE
* Ruane Jeter - DIGITAL TOASTER - April 14, 1987
* Isaac R. Johnson - BICYCLE FRAME
* John A. Johnson - WRENCH
* Lonnie Johnson - SUPER SOAKER WATERGUN
* P. Johnson - EYE PROTECTOR (GOGGLES)
* W. Johnson - EGG BEATER
* Frederick M. Jones - DEFROSTER - REFRIGERATION CONTROLS – AIR CONDITIONER
* Jones & Long - BOTTLE CAPS
* John H. Jordan - CLOTHES DRESSER
* Mary B. Kenner - SANITARY BELT (TAMPONS) - May 15, 1956
* Mary B. Kenner - SANITARY BELT (WATERPROOF) - April 14, 1959
* Mary B. Kenner - BATHROOM TISSUE HOLDER - Nov 19, 1982
* Mary B. Kenner - BACKWASHER ( BATHTUB OR SHOWER MOUNTED) - July 29,1987
* Lewis Latimer & Nichols - ELECTIC LAMP
* W.A. Lavalette - PRINTING PRESS
* F.W. Leslie - ENVELOPE SEAL
* Maurice W. Lee PRESSURE COOKER
* A.L. Lewis - WINDOW CLEANER
* John L. Love - PENCIL SHARPENER
* Tony J. Marshall - FIRE EXTINGUISHER
* Alexander Miles - ELEVATOR
* Jan E. Matzeliger - SHOE LASTING MACHINE
* W.A. Martin - LOCK
* Garrett A. Morgan - GAS MASK - Traffic Signal
* Lydia Newman - HAIR BRUSH - Nov 15, 1898
* Alice H. Parker - HEATING FURNACE - Dec 23, 1919
* J.F. Pickering - AIR SHIP (BLIMP)
* Purdy & Sadgwar - FOLDING CHAIR
* W.B. Purvis - FOUNTAIN PEN
* L.P. Ray - DUST PAN
* W.H. Richardson - BABY BUGGY
* Walter Sammons - PRESSING COMB
* G.T. Sampson - CLOTHES DRYER
* Dewey Sanderson - URINALYSIS MACHINE
* Ralph Sanderson - HYDRAULIC SHOCK ABSORBER
* S.R. Scottron - CURTAIN ROD
* Adolph Shamms - MULTI -STAGE ROCKET
* .W. Smith - LAWN SPRINKLER
* Richard B. Spikes - AUTOMATIC GEAR SHIFT
* J. Standard - REFRIGERATOR
* T.W. Stewart - MOP
* Maxine Snowden - RAIN HAT - 1983
* Theora Stephens - PRESSING & CURLING IRON
* Rufus J. Weaver - STAIR -CLIMBING WHEELCHAIR
* Paul E. Williams - HELICOPTER
* J.B. Winters - FIRE ESCAPE LADDER
* Granville T. Woods - Telephone System Apparatus Oct 11, 1887 – Patent # 371, 241
* Granville T. Woods - Roller Coaster
* Granville T. Woods - Auto Air Brake - June 10, 1902 - Patent # 701, 98
* Granville T. Woods - Telegraph Transmission Devices - Dec 2, 1884 Patents # - 308, 816 (7)
* Thanks to The Black Inventors Museum *
* Address : P.O. Box 76128 - Los Angeles , Calif. (90076)
* Phone (310) 859-4602)
* Director : Ghanaian Mr. Hamza Salifa
* Major Contributor of Information : SEESTAH Imahkus Nzinga Okofo
[This inspiring poem was featuring in the movie “Coach Carter ”]
Our Deepest Fear Is Not That We Are Inadequate, Our Deepest Fear Is That We Are Powerful Beyond Measure. It Is Our Light , Not Our Darkness That Most Frightens Us.
We Ask Ourselves, Who Am I To Be Brilliant, Gorgeous, Talented, And Fabulous ?
Actually Who Are We Not To Be ? You Are A Child Of God.
Your Playing Small Doesn’t Serve The World.
There Is Nothing Enlightened About Shrinking So That Other People Won’t Feel Insecure Around You.
We Are All Meant To Shine, As Children Do.
We Were Born To Make Manifest The Glory Of God That Is Within Us.
It’s Not Just In Some Of Us; It’s In Everyone.
And When We Let Our Own Light Shine We Unconsciously Give Other People Permission To Do The Same.
And As We Are Liberated From Our Own Fear, Our Presence Automatically Liberates Others
- Marianne Williamson -
[NOTE – BEING AFRAID AND REFUSING TO GET INVOLVED WON’T STOP US FROM DYING. BUT BEING AFRAID CAN PREVENT US FROM LIVING]
(Nkosi Sikeleli Africa )
God bless Africa May her glory be lifted high Hear our petitions .
God bless us, Your children God we ask You to protect our nation Intervene and end all conflicts Protect us, protect our nation, our nation.
From the blue of our heaven, From the depths of our sea, Over our eternal mountain ranges, Where the cliffs give answer.
Sounds the call to come together, And united we shall stand, Let us live and strive for freedom, In South Africa our land.
[Enoch Mankayi Sontonga]
WAKE UP !!! STAY UP !!!
TRUTHSEEKERS MOUNT UP !
[http://www.infowars.com/infowars.asx] / [gcnlive.com]
Life Is A Game. Have Fun . Luke 18:17 - Isaiah 11:6