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United States To Assist Developing Countries' WTO Participation

Trade-related technical assistance aimed at providing more expertise to negotiators

The United States is contributing nearly $1 million for trade-related technical assistance to the World Trade Organization (WTO), according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR).

The money approved by Congress for the fiscal year ending in September brings total U.S. contributions for technical assistance at the WTO to nearly $6 million since negotiations, formally called the Doha Development Agenda, were launched in 2001, USTR said.

Technical assistance helps developing countries participate in the negotiations, giving their negotiators training in how to understand the complex issues.

"Trade coupled with aid and technical assistance provides the strongest results for developing countries," U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman said in an April 6 press release.

If completed, the long-stalled Doha round could increase developing countries' income by $142 billion in 2015, according to World Bank estimates.

The contribution to the WTO represents just a small part of U.S. spending on trade capacity building in developing countries, which amounted to $1.3 billion in the previous fiscal year. The Bush administration has proposed more than doubling such spending to $2.7 billion in grants a year by 2010.

Source: U.S. Department of State