Passage 7
THE WTO AND THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
About 100 of the WTO’s over 140 members are developing countries. They are expected to play an increasingly important role in the WTO because of their number and because they are becoming more important in the global economy. The WTO agreements take account of these countries’ interests in a number of ways.
Work specifically on developing countries within the WTO itself can be pided into two broad areas：（i）work of the WTO Committee on Trade and Development and its Subcommittee on Least Developed Countries, and（ii）training for government officials（and others）by the WTO Secretariat as mandated by the committee.
Trade and Development Committee. The WTO Committee on Trade and Development has a wide-ranging mandate. Among the broad areas of topics it has tackled as priorities are：how provisions favouring developing countries are being implemented, guidelines for technical cooperation, increased participation of developing countries in the trading system, and the position of least developed countries.
Member-countries also have to inform the WTO about special programmes involving trade
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concessions for products from developing countries, and about regional arrangements among developing countries. The Trade and Development Committee has handled notifications of：（1）Generalised System of Preferences programmes（in which developed countries lower their trade barriers preferentially for products from developing countries）；
（2）Preferential arrangements among developing countries such as MERCOSUR（the Southern Common Market in Latin America）, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa（COMESA）, and the ASEAN Free Trade Area（AFTA）.
Subcommittee on Least Developed Countries.The Subcommittee on Least Developed Countries reports to the Trade and Development Committee, but it is an important body in its own right. Its work has focused on two related issues：
（1）ways of integrating least developed countries into the multilateral trading system；
（2）technical cooperation.
The subcommittee also examines periodically how special provisions favouring least developed countries in the WTO agreements are being implemented. It has identified two main contributions that the WTO could make to help least developed countries integrate better into the
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multilateral trading system：
（1）to ensure least developed countries are the priority for technical cooperation provided by the WTO and that this focuses on helping least developed countries create the capacity to build the necessary institutions and on training the people whose expertise is needed
（2）preparing a WTO Plan of Action for Least-Developed Countries.
In 1997, the subcommittee’s work has focused largely on the High-Level Meeting on Least-Developed Countries.
WTO technical cooperation
Technical cooperation is an area of WTO work that is devoted entirely to helping developing countries（and countries in transition from centrally-planned economies）operate successfully in the multilateral trading system. The objective is to help build the necessary institutions and to train officials. The subjects covered deal both with trade policies and with effective negotiation.
Training, seminars and workshops. The WTO holds regular training sessions on trade policy in Geneva. In addition, the WTO organizes technical cooperation activities, including seminars and workshops in various countries and courses in Geneva.
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Targeted are developing countries and countries in transition from former socialist or communist systems, with a special emphasis on African countries. Seminars have also been organized in Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Middle East and Pacific.
Funding for technical cooperation and training comes from three sources：the WTO’s regular budget, voluntary contributions from WTO members, and cost-sharing either by the host country of an event or by other countries.
The present regular WTO budget for technical cooperation is 741 000 Swiss francs （about $550 000）and for training 1.4 million Swiss francs（about $850 000）.
Issues
The Uruguay Round（1986 - 94）saw a shift in North-South politics in the GATT – WTO system. Previously, developed and developing countries had tended to be in opposite groups, although even then there were exceptions. In the run up to the Uruguay Round, the line between the two became less rigid, and during the round different alliances developed, depending on the issues.
In some issues, the pide still appears clear ——in textiles and clothing, and some of the
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newer issues debated in the WTO, for example. In many others, the developing countries do not necessarily share common interests and they may not adopt common positions.
Around the world, the issues are hotly debated：This is a summary of some of the issues discussed.
Participation in the system：opportunities and concerns. The WTO agreements, which were the outcome of the 1986 –94 Uruguay Round of trade negotiations, provide numerous opportunities for developing countries to make gains. But a number of problems will remain.
Among the gains are export opportunities. They include：
(1) fundamental reforms in agricultural trade
(2) the decision to phase out quotas on developing countries’ exports of textiles and clothing
(3) reductions in customs duties on industrial products
(4) expanding the number of products whose customs duty rates are “bound”under the WTO, making the rates difficult to raise
(5) phasing out bilateral agreements to restrict traded quantities of certain goods ——these “grey area” measures are not really recognized under GA TT – WTO.
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