VINA DEL MAR, CHILE -(Dow Jones)- The World Bank, through its private sector arm the International Finance Corporation, will provide around $12.5 billion in financing to help spur trade in Latin America in the next two years, World Bank President Robert Zoellick told reporters Friday.
The money is 25% of the World Bank's $50 billion Global Liquidity Trade Program designed to give emerging countries access to trade financing, said Zoellick, speaking on the sidelines of the Second Meeting of Finance Ministers of the Americas.
"It is important, in the context of aid and development, to help developing countries take advantage of lower trade barriers," said Zoellick.
Global trade has plummeted since the fourth quarter of 2008 and emerging economies have been especially hard hit as demand for their exports has dropped.
Trade finance has also become much more expensive as banks and financial institutions have increased costs, which is where the World Bank aims to help out.
"This is a liquidity facility to spur trade... it's mainly for companies that are facing credit restrictions," Sergio Jellinek, the World Bank's Manager of External Affairs Latin America and the Caribbean, said in an interview.
Protectionism is "appealing" in the aftermath of the economic crisis, but could exacerbate economic problems as occurred in the Great Depression of the 1930s, warned Zoellick.
Zoellick praised Chile's trade openness and said it will help the country recover quicker than others from the economic crisis.
In addition to increasing trade, finance ministers agreed with Chile's President Michelle Bachelet that economic recovery should go hand-in-hand with progress in social protection.
Ministers hope to avoid the mistakes of previous crises in the 1980s and 1990s when governments focused on macroeconomic measures, overlooking poverty and other social problems, said Zoellick.
-By Julian Dowling, Dow Jones Newswires; 56-2-820-4241; julian.dowling@dowjones.com
Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/access/al?rnd=%2BrFuX7rOcZgXqFaF7hQljA%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.

Publié le 03 Juillet 2009 Copyright © 2009 Dowjones