Finland donates a million euros to support developing countries’ trade

According to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Finland will support the World Trade Organisation’s trade-related technical assistance (TRTA) activities by slightly more than one million euros in 2021–2022.

The support is aimed to strengthen least-developed countries’ trading capacity. The agreement on the support was signed on Thursday 10 June 2021 in Geneva.

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari says that developing countries’ participation in the rules-based trade system and their capacity to fully engage in international trade benefits Finland, too.

“The significance of trade for poverty reduction and economic development is indisputable, and its importance will grow when the pandemic is over. Finland's support will be used to strengthen developing countries’ capacity to make use of the global rules-based system and their participation in international trade,” Minister Skinnari says. 

Finland supports three funds.

The Doha Development Agenda Global Trust Fund (DDAGTF) supports training of politicians and public officials specialising on trade matters. The aim is to strengthen developing countries’ opportunities to negotiate and implement WTO agreements and to benefit from them.

The Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF), for its part, supports developing countries in building their knowledge of international sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards and helps them in improving the safety and quality of export products.

The LDC Ministerial Conference Trust Fund (LDC-MC12) supports least-developed countries’ opportunities to participate in the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) of the WTO.