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Abstract

Aid for trade is emerging as an important vehicle for supporting developing and least developed countries to transition towards more sustainable trade while building the environmental resilience and economic diversification vital for sustainable development. Enhanced aid for trade targeted at trade-related aspects of plastic pollution—a major and rising global threat to the environment, health, and sustainable development—can support ongoing efforts in the Informal Dialogue on Plastics Pollution and Environmentally Sustainable Plastics Trade (IDP) at the World Trade Organization (WTO). These discussions seek to bolster cooperation on trade and trade policies in ways that make a positive contribution to global efforts to tackle plastic pollution, including the negotiations for a new legally binding international instrument on plastic pollution at the United Nations. This policy brief identifies how aid for trade could be harnessed to support developing and least developed countries to address the trade-related aspects of the plastic pollution crisis in a manner that is aligned with their priorities and needs. It suggests a set of short- and medium-term “deliverables” on aid for trade and plastic pollution that WTO members could pursue through the IDP and related cooperation at the WTO.

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