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NEW: Department for International Trade is being given part of the £14bn aid budget, to offer its expertise in trade and foreign investment advice to developing countries... will count towards the binding 0.7% Official Development Assistance target
Trade Secretary Liam Fox tells me “We want to bring development and trade closer together. Rather than having developing countries dependent on largesse of rich countries”...
This sort of move of aid spending away from DfID to other Departments already controversial - depts such as BEIS, Home Office, Health, FCO, HMRC, now spend 28% of UK aid versus 11% 5 years ago - NAO and development charities have criticised effectiveness and value of this shift
Fox tells me: “It is not tied aid in the sense it benefits the UK, has to benefit country itself” - Labour banned tied aid in 2001 - but Intl Dev committee warned last yr similar projects risked “being used as a slush fund to pay for developing UK’s diplomatic or trade interests”
The contention that trade has been better than aid at lifting the world out of extreme poverty is obv not controversial - that’s over a billion in a generation in the chart below... via @icai_uk 
Full Story here: bbc.co.uk/news/business-…
