Developing countries and the multilateral trading system

1
Developing countries and the multilateral trading
system from the GATT to the Uruguay round the
future

• The origin of the GATT can be traced to the US
  governments proposals for the expansion of world
  trade employment published on Dec. 6th ,1945
  and forwarded to all other countries in the world.

2
Wide negotiations contracting parties -

• In all 123 bilateral negotiations covering 50,000
  items took place over 1,000 meetings and produced
  a single document called the General Agreement on
  Tariffs and Trade (GATT) on Nov. 18, 1947.
• Among the original twenty-three contracting
  parties to the GATT in 1947, eleven were
  developing countries.

3
Purpose of GATT -

• The General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT)
  was established in 1948 in Geneva to pursue the
  objective of free fair trade in order to
  encourage growth and development of all member
  countries.
• The principal purpose of GATT was to ensure
  competition in commodity trade through reduction
  or removal of trade barriers.

4
The Uruguay round of Negotiations -

• The 8th round of multi-lateral trade
  negotiations, popularly as Uruguay Round was
  started in September 1986 at a special session of
  GATT contracting parties held at ministerial
  level.
• The Uruguay Round (UR) contained the mandate to
  have negotiations in 15 areas. In part I,
  negotiations on trade in goods were to be
  conducted in 14 areas and in part II negotiations
  on trade in services were to be carried out.

5
Part I (trade in goods) declaration in UR -

• Tariffs
• Non tariff measures
• Tropical products
• Natural resource based products
• Textiles and clothing
• Agriculture
• GATT Articles
• Safeguards
• MTN
• Subsidies
• Dispute settlement
• TRIPs
• TRIMs
• FOGS

6
Part II of the declaration included trade in
services and re-classified the above 15 areas
into 7 as below -

• Market access
• Agriculture
• Textiles
• TRIMs
• TRIPs
• Trade in Services
• Institutional Matters

7
Impact of WTO on various aspects of Indian
economy -

• Effects on Indian Industry
• Impact of WTO on SSI Units
• WTO, Subsidies and Agriculture

8
Doha talks collapse -

• As the Doha round talks collapsed, basically, due
  to the US/EU squabbling over agricultural
  subsidies, India has reaped an indirect gain.
• It can now continue with its protectionist
  agricultural policies.

9
Since the establishment of WTO in Jan. 1995, so
far 6 ministerial conferences have been held

• Singapore - Dec. 1996
• Geneva May 1998
• Seattle Nov.-Dec. 1999
• Doha Nov. 2001
• Cancun Sept. 2003
• Hong Kong Dec. 2005

10
Objectives of WTO -

• To improve standard of living of people in the
  member countries.
• To ensure full employment and broad increase in
  effective demand.
• To enlarge production and trade of goods.
• To enlarge production and trade of services.
• To ensure optimum utilization of world resources.
• To accept the concept of sustainable development.
• To protect environment.

11
No. of WTO members - 149

• There are presently 30 countries in the process
  of accession to the WTO.
• There are number of important committees for
  administration of WTO
• 1. Dispute Settlement Body.
• 2. Trade Policy Review Body.
• 3. Council for Trade in Goods.
• 4. Council for Trade in Services.
• 5. Council for Trade Related Aspects of
  Intellectual Property Rights.

12
Multilateralism Vs. Bilateralism

• There is no doubt that in a world of unequal
  partners, multilateralism is superior to
  bilateralism and if some concessions are to be
  extracted from strong partners belonging to US
  and European Community, then the combined
  strength of the developing countries can exercise
  a stronger pull in their favour.

13
Social clause multi-lateral trade organization

• The innovation of the social clause was also
  conceived with the same intention of blunting the
  competitive advantage of developing nations.
• The solution lies in the fact that the developing
  nations should take advantage of the
  multi-lateral trade organization and show their
  combined strength by closing their ranks, rather
  than surrender their sovereignty one after
  another.

14
Conclusion

• There is no concrete answer to this question
  whether multilateral trade negotiation has
  completely solved the problem of the developing
  nations in achieving the free and fair trade
  under globalization era.