Developing Countries and Their Participation in the WTO in Making Trade Policy - An Analysis (original) (raw)

WTO Law and Developing Countries

2007

This book was originally published in 2007. Developing countries make up the majority of the membership of the World Trade Organization. Many developing countries believe that the welfare gains that were supposed to ensue from the establishment of the WTO and the results of the Uruguay Round remain largely unachieved. Coming on the heels of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the ongoing Doha Development Round, launched in that Middle Eastern city in the fall of 2001, is now on 'life support'. It was inaugurated with much fanfare as a means of addressing the difficulties faced by developing countries within the multilateral trading system. Special and differential treatment provisions in the WTO agreement in particular are the focus of much discussion in the ongoing round, and voices for change are multiplying because of widespread dissatisfaction with the effectiveness, enforceability, and implementation of those special treatment provisions.

Developing Countries in the WTO System

WTO Law and Developing Countries

The long-term impact of the Uruguay Round on developing countries will be greater than anything achieved in previous multilateral trade negotiations. This outcome will result, above all, from the higher level of involvement of these countries than in earlier rounds. This advance is in part due to the expansion of the negotiating agenda to include sectors of interest to most developing countries, notably agriculture and textiles. It is also linked to the increasing liberalization taking place in many of these countries, a trend which should help bring into their economies significant new income generated by the Round. Exactly how much they gain will partly depend, of course, on how they choose to take advantage of new opportunities presented. At the same time, the Marrakesh Agreement explicitly recognizes that positive efforts by all members are necessary to encourage and cement this integration of developing country economies into the global trading system. 516 Readers of earlier parts of this book will have already noted the many special provisions in favour of developing countries that have been incorporated into the individual agreements and decisions of the Uruguay Round. As a whole, these represent an effort by the signatories to take into account the special needs of these countries, supplementing a number of previously existing measures carried over unchanged from the GATT 1947. 517 The existence of a certain amount of flexibility, for developing countries, in some of the trading rules takes on added importance under the Marrakesh 516 WTO Agreement, Preamble, para. 2. 517 In particular, Article XVIII, Part IV and the Enabling Clause introduced in 1979. The first allows flexibility in the use of trade measures to protect infant industries and in the use of quantitative import restrictions to alleviate balance-of-payments difficulties. The second is a section covering the principles and objectives of the GATT with regards to developing countries. It encourages developed countries to improve access to their markets and states that developing countries are not expected to reciprocate trade barrier reduction commitments made by developed countries. The Enabling Clause (Decision on Differential and More Favourable Treatment, Reciprocity and Fuller Participation of Developing Countries, 28 November 1979 (L/4903)) permits preferential treatment to be given to, and exchanged among, developing countries, subject to stated conditions. It also authorizes specially favourable treatment for leastdeveloped countries.

A Critical Examination of the effects of World Trade Organization on the Developing States

This study examines the effects of WTO on developing states. The thesis of the essay is that whereas WTO performs an important role in managing world trade, its benefit are not evenly distributed. The study shows that since its inception WTO is decision-making structures are dominated by developed states which use their clout to protect their interests. The study suggests that unless reforms are undertaken, developing states have little chance of gaining equally as rich states.

What the Developing Countries Want from the WTO

2001

There is a very strong consensus among economists that developing countries have the most to gain from movements towards freer trade under the WTO. But the Seattle WTO meeting was suspended in part because of vocal NGOs who charged that free trade and globalization were not in poor countries' interests. This paper makes three points. First, developing countries do have much to gain from general trade liberalization. Trade expansion is positively linked to growth. Second, agricultural trade liberalization offers even greater gains than liberalization in other sectors because of the heavy dominance of agriculture in poor countries' economies. Third, not all developing countries are poor, food-deficit, importing countries. They are a heterogeneous group and many are agricultural exporters. An open-economy development strategy has historically paid off for developing countries and is still the best bet for the future. Therefore, a WTO agreement which provides a fair, open, trans...

Special and Differential Treatment of Developing Countries in Gatt/Wto: Past, Present, Future

2014

Rules on special and differential treatment (SDT) constitute the centerpiece of the WTO's strategy for integrating developing countries into the world trading system. We examine the theoretical rationale for SDT when trade liberalization in developing countries is impeded by a policy commitment problem. We show that SDT rules, if reconciled with the principle of reciprocity, can help developing countries to reduce trade barriers and improve their trading prospects.

Developing Countries and the Jurisprudence of the WTO

Caribbean Dialogue, 2012

Developing countries have a particularly hard time ahead in the negotiating agenda on the reform of international trade. In a sense they are committed to fight against the tide of free trade and the principles enshrined therein: most favored nation status, which means that the most favorable terms given to any party must be extended to all, and the rule on national treatment, which means that the concessions extended to locally produced goods and services must be extended to foreign counterparts. The apprehension that the undiluted application of these principles is a road to disaster has strengthened the search for exceptions; the danger is that this can put developing countries on the defensive, as can be gleaned from the very name of the exceptions: Special and Differential Treatment, Preference, Waivers. Thus, they may find themselves in the position of always having to make the case, or worse, of seeming eccentric, even perverse, especially in the light of the view that the ap...