How Can Least-Developed Countries and Other Small, Weak and Vulnerable Economies Also Gain from the Doha Development Agenda on the Road to Hong Kong?

摘要

The Doha Round will need to be ambitious, in all areas of the negotiations for all major groups in the WTO to make gains. As this article set out in its introduction, there are different perspectives among WTO Members on what constitutes the development dimension of the multilateral trading system. To a large extent the perspectives of Members on the development dimension coincides with their interests in the round. While these perspectives and interests are sometimes contradictory, they provide the bases for trade-offs between developed and developing countries and among developing countries themselves. A successful conclusion of the round will require engagement and dialogue between these different groups and the willingness to bargain and compromise. In the agriculture negotiations the G20 has made major strides in building greater convergence of perspectives among developing countries. The G20 has invited the coordinators of other developing country groupings, such as the G33, the African Caribbean and Pacific Group, the Africa Group, the LDC Group and Caricom to participate in several of its recent ministerial conferences. The G20 Delhi Declaration and the G20 Bhurban Declaration have attempted to address several of the issues of concern to these groups, such as special products, special safeguard mechanism and preference erosion. The larger players with greater capacity, among both developed and developing countries, will thus need to display a greater degree of generosity and leadership.