Impact of WTO policies on developing countries: issues and perspectives

Abstract

About two thirds of the WTO’s around 150 members are developing countries. They play an increasingly important and active role in the WTO because of their numbers, because they are becoming more important in the global economy, and because they increasingly look to trade as a vital tool in their development efforts. An attempt is made in this paper to examine whether the WTO policies have positive or negative effect on the trade of developing countries. The paper further discusses that the Doha Round of Talk is a myth, a fiction, or is it a reality. Can the spirit of Doha, which launched a new round of negotiations and work with an explicit pledge to deliver development-friendly results, be redeemed or not? Finally, it analyses the special differential treatment (SDT) for developing countries.