ABSTRACT
The Aid for Trade (AfT) plays a highly influential role in rationalising trade liberalisation within moral economy of European Union (EU)-Africa Association under Cotonou. This chapter provides an overview of EU facilities for contributing to AfT, and focuses on European Development Fund as the immediate funding envelope after signing of Cotonou. It provides assessment of the European Investment Bank (EIB) amidst its alleged contributions to pro-poor AfT initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa. Similarly, financial capacity and remit of Cotonou's Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (CTA) is considered to illustrate the implications of low private sector development (PSD)/AfT funding in Africa. Moreover, it is important to consider the EU's moralised claims of supporting AfT via budget support, in an apparent merging of objectives of these aid modalities. In the case of EU contributions to AfT/PSD in the Post-Washington Consensus, a moral economy analysis illustrates the significance of normative aid concessions in bolstering the moral economy of EU-Africa ties.
