The United States debate on trade adjustment assistance highlights adjustment challenge facing all countries.

The requirements for adjustment assistance have not been addressed in the FAO work to this point.

The trade adjustment assistance of the United States under the Trade Promotion Authority also confirms this.

The African nations need multilateral assistance for the design and financing of such adjustment assistance schemes.

In the area of textiles, proposals for post-ATC adjustment assistance to affected members, particularly small producers, should be examined.

On textiles, the post-ATC era could result in serious impacts for some countries, and post-adjustment assistance would be required.

In the industrialized countries, domestic support for open markets was secured by constructing social safety nets and providing adjustment assistance to adversely affected groups and industries.

(b) When resource reallocation follows trade liberalization, it is also necessary to provide adjustment assistance programmes so as to facilitate the transition.

The cost of these adjustment assistance programmes, if they are designed carefully, should be relatively minuscule in comparison with large potential gains to be made from trade liberalization;

One proposal was to adjust development assistance to counter the declines in cycles of commodity prices.