EU 'unlikely' to meet 2030 goal on trade support to poorer countries, auditors say

The EU is not expected to meet its 2030 target of providing greater trade support to the least-developed countries, a report by the European Court of Auditors found on Tuesday (16 September).

The so-called “aid for trade initiative” was an idea initially adopted by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2005 to assist poorer countries in building trade capacity and infrastructure to benefit from the global economy.

A few years later, the EU implemented its own strategy with the aim of investing 25 percent of its budget for “aid for trade” to the 44 countries that are identified by the UN as the least-developed countries.

But this European goal is still far from being achieved.

“It is very unlikely that the EU will meet its 25-percent funding target by 2030”, warned Bettina Jakobsen, the auditor in charge of the report. 

Speaking to reporters about how trade can help lift people out of poverty, Jakobsen also said that the commission should reconsider whether the target is still “appropriate” and if an action plan would be needed. 

In its written answers to the auditors, the European Commission said that it will now internally examine what went wrong.

While Brussels increasingly financially supports countries in northern Africa that help the EU deal with migration, investment in trade infrastructure with the poorest countries in the world is in decline. 

In 2022, the last year for which data is available, only 12 percent of the EU's investment in supporting trade went to least-developed countries — compared to 18 percent between 2010 and 2015.

Still, the EU is considered the largest donor in the world of this “aid for trade initiative,” being accountable for 36 percent of global flows of $51.1bn [€46.5bn] in 2022. 

EU collective "aid for trade" peaked at nearly €23bn in 2020, before returning to about €18.5bn, according to a 2023 report of the European Commission.

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