A Critical Assessment of the Eu’s Trade-related Assistance To Third Countries : Lessons from the past, Policy Options for the Future

This paper discusses the rationale for trade-related assistance (TRA) to third countries (support for Trade Policy and Regulation, Trade Development, Adjustment to Trade, Supply Side Measures), and the role of the European Commission in this. It provides an overview of EC TRA on the basis of a detailed list of individual TRA projects and attempts to do this also on the basis of the budget. The EU allocated €700m to TRA activities over the period 1996-2000 for some 120 projects. The funds increased to €835m per year. There were 186 TRA projects in 2004, and a further 200 infrastructure projects. The study also discusses issues relating to the effectiveness and budgeting of the EC's TRA and Commission President Barroso's pledge to increase TRA to €1bn per year. Special attention is devoted to the justification of a possible separate budget line for TRA in order to increase transparency and enable ex-ante programming.