Boosting Market Access for Least Developed Countries

The United States government has provided funding that will enable trade policy analysts from least-developed countries to access market intelligence free-of-charge over the coming year.

A $200,000 contribution from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to the Geneva-based International Trade Center (ITC) will allow trade officials from LDCs, including trade negotiators working on the Doha Development Agenda, to access ITC’s Market Access Map (MacMap).

Market Access Map, a web-based tariff analysis tool, provides a comprehensive source of tariffs and market access measures applied at the bilateral level by 170 importing countries to the products exported by 239 countries and territories. Products are described at the most detailed level, the national tariff line.

The contribution to the MacMap is just one part of the U.S. commitment to building trade capacity in the developing world.

USAID’s strategy in this area includes the following:

• USAID helps to build negotiators capacity to understand and analyze the issues in complex trade talks and agreements, including accession to the World Trade Organization.
  
• USAID helps countries to carry out trade agreements that may require special reporting and institutions plus increased coordination, information management, and oversight across ministries.
  
• USAID implements projects to address a wide range of development needs in the public and private sectors to increases countries’ competitiveness—from helping governments create a competitive and enabling environment to supporting local enterprises abilities to identify and produce goods and services the world is willing to buy.

The U.S. actively supports the Integrated Framework for Trade-Related Technical Assistance (IF) to least-developed countries through its bilateral trade-related assistance programs as well as its funding to multilateral institutions and projects -- such as MacMap. IF is a multi-agency, multi-donor program, originally mandated by the WTO Singapore Ministerial, that assists the least developed countries to expand their participation in the global economy.

Attached please find a copy of the ITC press release on the USAID contribution for MacMap.