The World Trade Organization (WTO) declaration launching the current multilateral trade negotiations put developing country interests and the concept of special and differential treatment (SDT) at its core.
With developing countries making up the majority of WTO members, the Declaration asserted that ‘all special and differential treatment provisions shall be reviewed with a view to strengthening them and making them more precise, effective and operational.’
But so much for the bold statements – discussions on SDT are at a standstill. The industrialised countries are willing to offer only token gestures, while developing nations are demanding the unobtainable: binding commitments on the industrialised countries to provide substantial positive support and to remove all barriers to developing country exemption, coupled with exemption for themselves from any commitment to do anything.
This latest edition of the IDS Bulletin examines the state of play. How have things come to this impasse, what is the SDT framework within the WTO and what are the ways forward?
