Development With Trade: Ldcs and the International Economy : A Sequoia Seminar

Since World War II, and prior to the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO), formulations of the rules governing international trade were almost entirely within the purview of the industrialized countries. The rules thus devised as part of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) -- the WTO's predecessor organization -- did not ignore developing countries, but accorded them special and different treatment. Development with Trade questions the value of these perquisites in lieu of rule-making participation by their purported beneficiaries.
The conventional treatment of LDCs' trade concerns as "special" and "different" is shown to be as deferential as differential -- extending the benefits of international trade to the few (some elites) within developing countries while denying those benefits to most. The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) accorded LDC imports within the GATT are characterized within this volume as being fraudulent. A product of implicit (at least) collaboration between the leadership of both industrial countries and developing countries: "a fraud perpetrated as much by the so-called leaders of the developing countries as by the countries that engage in such false generosity."

Though the Uruguay Round - the concluding round of GATT negotiations - is the explicit target of this book, its implications are of continuing relevance. China's entry into the WTO, for example, will be delayed to the extent that it is expected to fulfill, before entry, the same -- rather than special and different -- criteria for membership, as have other successful candidates.