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Trade finance is one of the areas where exporters from developing countries are most disadvantaged compared to those from developed coun­tries because selling at a distance to purchasers who are not directly known within the country requires special skills and risk assessment from banks. Only when exports reach a sufficiently high level is it profitable for banks in a country to acquire these skills, so exporters, par­ticularly SMEs, are hampered by difficulty in accessing export finance. Therefore both the cost and the availability of appropriate finance are problems. Some agencies offer support to build national capacity, while others try to fill the gap until such capacity is available.