| Article Index |
|---|
| A Clear and Consistent Approach to Development |
| Trade |
| Aligning Trade Policy with Development |
| Migration |
| Intellectual Property |
| Common Vision |
| All Pages |
The United States has been working to improve the competitiveness of Bangladeshi businesses, yet U.S. tariffs make the country’s exports less competitive in our market.
In 2006, Bangladesh received $80 million in U.S. assistance, while the United States collected $487 million in tariffs on imports from Bangladesh.1 Trade is critical to spurring economic growth in developing countries, but the United States applies “the highest trade barriers to imports from the poorest countries.”2 These are often the same countries that receive U.S. development assistance. A recent government-sponsored report on reforming U.S. foreign assistance emphasizes the need to ensure that our policies do not work at cross purposes. The United States spends more than any other country on international development; annual U.S. development assistance exceeds $21 billion.3 But an overall figure for assistance is just one measure of a nation’s commitment to development. Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) depends on a consistent set of policies across government agencies and departments.
The Center for Global Development has developed a Commitment to Development Index (CDI), which covers policies on a range of issues, including aid, trade, foreign investment, migration, the environment, security, and technology transfer. The CDI ranks developed countries according to how much they “help poor countries to build prosperity.”4 On a list of the 21 richest donor nations, the United States ranked 14th on its commitment to development. In three areas in particular—trade, migration, and intellectual property rights—the United States could be doing a better job of aligning its policies and programs with the MDGs.
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1 Beyond Assistance: The HELP Commission Report on Foreign Assistance Reform (2007), HELP Commission.
3 Using a different measure, aid measured as a percentage of GDP, eighteen countries exceed the U.S. commitment. Official Development Assistance, OECD: http://stats.oecd.org/wbos/Index.aspx?DatasetCode=ODA_DONOR.
4 Commitment to Development Index 2007 (2008), Center for Global Development: http://www.cgdev.org/section/initiatives/_active/cdi/#.
