The WTO and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

The WTO Secretariat maintains close working relations with OECD Secretariat staff. The main areas of cooperation include: agriculture, export subsidies, fisheries subsidies etc. Research and studies by the OECD are regularly used by WTO Secretariat staff to perform its duties (for example to draft the Trade Policy Review Reports). In many instances, work and discussion at the OECD have been instrumental in preparing future negotiations at the WTO.

 

Observership

Secretariat staff also attend the OECD Trade Committee meetings that address many trade issues and serves as a preparation step for the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting. WTO Secretariat is also present at other specific meetings such as in the area of agriculture, export subsidies and export credits as well as in multi-agency meetings on statistics. Generally, the two organizations have observership arrangements for attendance at their respective committees.

> IGOs in which the WTO participates as an observer
> IGOs granted observer status to WTO bodies

  

Cooperation on technical assistance

Trade related technical assistance and capacity building are among the areas of WTO/OECD cooperation. In 2002, the two organizations launched a WTO/OECD database that consolidated information on trade-related aid commitments in the areas of capacity building and technical assistance. Since then, the Organisations' Secretariats have issued joint reports. The 2005 report presented an overview of Trade-Related Technical Assistance and Capacity Building (TRTA/CB) committed between 2001 and 2004, and was based on data reported to the TCBDB.

Following WTO Members’ decision to use the CRS to monitor Aid for Trade and the subsequent decision by the Joint WTO-OECD Working Group on the trade Capacity Building Database to cease reporting to the TCBDB, the TCBDB no longer exists.

On Aid-for-Trade, the OECD is to play an important role in working with the WTO to monitor the implementation of the initiative, in particular by providing data necessary to have a global overview of Aid-for-Trade flows. In 2006, OECD organized in Doha, Qatar, a Policy Dialogue with non-OECD Members regarding “Aid-for-Trade: from Policy to Practice”. It was the occasion to discuss how best to support developing countries' supply-side capacities and infrastructures in order to better exploit the opportunities created by multilateral trade liberalisation, taking account of the Recommendations of the WTO Task Force on Aid-for-Trade and the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.

On Aid for Trade, the OECD and the WTO have collaborated closely to develop the framework for monitoring Aid for Trade in line with the WTO Task Force recommendations. In 2009, the OECD and the WTO completed the second joint monitoring survey of the Aid for Trade Initiative. The analysis and outcomes of the second survey are published in the second edition of the joint OECD/WTO publication “Aid for Trade at a Glance: Maintaining Momentum.” The publication tracks progress since the first Global Review on Aid for Trade and, in particular, assesses the additionality of Aid for Trade flows on the basis of the OECD/CRS database and highlights how much has been achieved with respect to the implementation of donor and partner countries’ Aid for Trade strategies. In addition, the report contains partner country factsheets, which present, at a glance, the demand, the response, the outcome and the impact of Aid for Trade.

> More on Aid for Trade