Fairness in International Trade Negotiations: Developing Countries in the GATT and WTO

摘要

In this paper, I have relied on the distinction made by Franck (1995) between the two notions of fairness of legitimacy and equity. Institutional structures determine, in good measure, which particular vision will provide the basis for its rules. I argued that in the case of the GATT, decision-making and negotiation processes that led to the effective marginalisation of developing countries in the early years also led to the dominance of the legitimacy-as-fairness view. Attempts by developing countries to bring equity-based fairness into the mainstream trade discourse generated poor results. The failures of Phase Ⅰ prompted an extreme swing by developing countries to Phase Ⅱ when traditional Third World-ist politics and demands for preferential treatment and exceptions took a back seat, and developing countries seemed to have converted wholesale to assumptions of reciprocal trade concessions. In the wake of the disappointments of the Uruguay Round, a more nuanced position is in evidence. Issues of equity have returned to the fore, but this time are premised upon at least a qualified commitment to economic liberalisation rather than an epistemic alternative. Developing countries have been careful to frame their demands for equity of process and substance in the WTO within the norms and rules of the organisation.