International trade is an "engine for development", providing its most important source of finance, according to the Monterrey Consensus drawn up for the UN-organised Financing for Development Conference in March. Donors and agencies are called on to reinforce trade-related training, capacity and institution building and trade-supporting services. Similarly, the declaration of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in Doha underlines "the urgent necessity for the effective co-ordinated delivery of technical assistance with bilateral donors, in the OECD Development Assistance Committee and relevant international and regional intergovernmental institutions, within a coherent policy framework and timetable".

Capacity development for trade is about mobilising participatory approaches to deal sustainably with complex trade policy and trade competitiveness agendas. Trade capacity building enhances the ability of partner country policy-makers, enterprises and civil society actors to:

• collaborate in formulating and implementing a trade development strategy that is embedded in a broader national development strategy;
• strengthen trade policy and institutions as a basis for reforming import regimes, increasing the volume and value-added of exports, diversifying export products and markets and increasing foreign investment to generate jobs and exports;
• participate in - and benefit from - the institutions, negotiations and processes that shape national trade policy and the rules and practices of international commerce.

The Monterrey Consensus recognises the importance of greater access to markets. However, developing countries, especially the least-developed, will benefit fully from market access opportunities only if accompanied by strengthened capacity to negotiate and implement WTO agreements as well as to carry out trade policy reforms and improve competitiveness.

Developing countries face enormous new challenges with limited institutional and human resource capacities. Implementation of the WTO agreements and obligations is far more demanding on developing countries' capacities than is tariff liberalisation. Access to key export markets can be constrained due to lack of information on import requirements and inadequate technical and financial resources to comply with them. Since Doha, there is particular urgency in scaling up trade capacity activities as a progress report must go to the WTO General Council in December 2002 on the implementation and adequacy of the trade capacity commitments.

The OECD's Development Assistance Committee high level meeting in April 2001 endorsed its Guidelines on Strengthening Trade Capacity for Development. These guidelines provide a common reference point for the aid, trade and finance communities. Their purpose is to help situate trade capacity building in the context of comprehensive approaches to development and poverty reduction. They review and analyse the strategic importance of trade capacity development. And they identify key principles and processes for improving the design and delivery of trade capacity building activities.