Directorate-General for Trade

Development

The EU's Trade development policy aims at ensuring that developing countries are able to benefit from access to the EU's market

The relationship between trade and development is a complex one. While trade is not a guaranteed route to economic growth for developing countries, evidence suggests that trade and openness to the global economy play an important role in creating jobs and prosperity in developing countries.

Making trade work for development means weighing the needs of every developing economy carefully, and tailoring policies that reflect different vulnerabilities - and different potential strengths. There is no single model for trade and development.

Through its trade policy the EU aims to ensure that developing countries are able to benefit from access to its own markets and from the openness of the global economy. It sees progressive openness to trade as one part of a development strategy that has already lifted hundreds of millions of people in the developing world out of poverty, and can do the same for hundreds of millions more.

The WTO Doha Development Agenda (DDA)

For more information on the Doha Development Agenda, see Doha

The EU has been a strong advocate of pro-development measures in the World Trade Organisation's 'Doha Round' of world trade negotiations. The EU works closely with developing countries in the search for appropriate solutions to their particular concerns and needs.