Global Gateway: EU holds its rank as top provider of ‘aid for trade’ in Africa and globally

The European Union remains the world’s biggest contributor of ‘Aid for Trade’, committing over €18 billion in 2021, with Africa being the largest recipient of EU Collective Aid for Trade, followed by Asia and Europe, according to the latest EU Aid for Trade Progress Report.
This amount represents 47% of all Aid for Trade originating from bilateral and multilateral sources, sustaining the growth trajectory from a 33% contribution in 2018. The EU’s Aid for Trade policies aim to promote sustainable growth in partner countries, and by helping them better integrate their economies into the global trading system and take greater advantage of the poverty-reducing benefits of economic openness and enhanced trade efficiency. Programs funded by the EU are complemented by the very generous General System of Preferences (GSP) scheme and asymmetrical trade agreements that give broad market access to exporting partner countries.
“Trade can be an important accelerator for development,” says European Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen. “The EU’s traditionally done very well on this front, and I am happy to see that we are once again a top Aid for Trade contributor. Through our Global Gateway investment strategy, we work to create enabling environment for trade and sustainable growth.” But as a policy brief published by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) last year noted, while “the southern neighborhood should be a key focus for the EU’s Global Gateway infrastructure program … (in reality) the bloc has so far directed relatively little of its investment to the region.”