The Political Economy of Strategic Aid: The Case of Trade Facilitation.

The new buzzword in the WTO parlance has been “aid for trade”. Trade Facilitation (TF) is a less catchy expression and has sparked fewer discussions, but might prove key to “deliver” on the developmental side of the new trade round. While the policy debate is advanced and a growing number of economic papers make a strong case for the potential of TF reform, the political economy side of the debate has not received sufficient attention. This paper wants to contribute in filling this gap.This paper will focus on the debate what explains aid flows in this area. Are there substantial differences among bilateral donors and bilateral vs. multilateral donors? What type of strategic aid is at work in TF? Who gets aid money and why? These questions will be tackled with help of regression analysis using a new data set. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]