00-3127 ENDPRESS RELEASE
PRESS/188
28 July 2000
 SWEDEN DONATES 7 MILLION SWEDISH CROWNS
TO WTO TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FUND
The Swedish government pledged this week to provide 7 million crowns (about
CHF 1.3 million) for WTO Technical Assistance to benefit  least-developed countries. Swedish
Minister for Trade, Mr. Leif Pagrotsky, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with WTO
Director-General Mike Moore, who visited Stockholm this week.
"The aim of the development assistance allocation is to increase the participation of the
developing countries and to create greater opportunities for them to influence the work of the WTO",
said Mr. Pagrotsky. "In the Swedish view, we are convinced that the very poorest of the countries
within the WTO system are in need of extra support, partly in order to protect their own interests in
ongoing negotiations and trade disputes and partly in order to be able to carry out the necessary
adjustments prescribed by WTO agreements. Sweden's contribution to the WTO fund is an importantbuilding stone in the work of establishing fair rules of the game in the field of trade.
"I am very grateful to Sweden for its contribu tion to the Trust Fund", said Mike Moore. "At
the moment, the WTO can only respond to an increasing demand for technical assistance through
these types of generous contributions. Unfortunately, the WTO's regular budget for technicalassistance of CHF 741, 000 is insufficient to meet all the requests from least developed and
developing countries, and economies in transition."
The Director-General has appealed to all WTO Member governments to raise the regular
budget for technical assistance. A group of countries, including Sweden, has proposed to increase theregular budget for technical assistance by CHF 10 million. Sweden is one of the initiators of the WTO
Trust Fund set up in 1999.
Mr. Moore and Mr. Pagrotsky issued a joint article
1 on Monday 24 July which called for the
improvement through greater technical support of developing countries' capacity to participate in thework of the WTO: "All 137 member countries must be given real opportunities to participate in the
decision-making process and to make their voices heard".
                                                     
1 The article was jointly published on 24 July by Dagens Nyheter (Sweden) and the Guardian (United
Kingdom).