Development at the World Trade Organization - Moodle USP do.doc

Development at the World Trade Organization Sonia E. Rolland Introduction Sonia E. Rolland DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199600885.003.0001 Abstract and Keywords To date, there has been no integrated or systematic legal framework to accommodate developing countries needs in the WTO legal regime. Instead, exceptions to the general rules and disciplines provide some flexibility for developing countries (special and differential treatment). The objective of this book is to analyze the nature and content of developing countries rights at the WTO and to consider whether such rights could evolve from their current status as exceptions to a more coherent system of rules embedded in the WTO legal regime that would more effectively address developing countries demands. The introduction briefly traces current practice to identify what informs the development dimension at the WTO and introduces two paradigms for the trade and development relationship: development as an idiosyncrasy and trade and development as normative co-constituents. Keywords: development, special and differential treatment, SDT, exceptions, policy space, differentiation, coherence The Marrakesh Agreement establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO) recognizes the “need for positive efforts designed to ensure that developing countries, and especially the least developed amongst them, secure a share of growth in international trade commensurate with the needs of their economic development.” While some 75 percent of WTO members currently are developing countries, the promises of welfare gains from trade liberalization have not materialized for many of them or have been much more modest than anticipated in the 1990s. More recently, the failure of the last several WTO ministerial meetings and the limited progress made in the ongoing Doha Development Round have brought into the limelight the complexity of the relationship between trade liberalization and development in the multilateral system. To date, th