Economic development and the WTO: Back to basics?

Conclusion  An effective WTO is critical for developing countries —the alternatives, bilateral and regional agreements, will give rise to trade diversion and discrimination, and most likely exclude sectors such as agriculture and policies such as antidumping. Developing countries have a strong incentive to put together an agenda that offers potential benefits to OECD countries as well as themselves. The Singapore issues are arguably not necessary to move forward on the market access agenda. There is huge scope to trade “concessions” on tariffs — both applied rates and tariff binding. The same is true for access to service markets. A refocused effort centered on market access, complemented by an emphasis on transparency predictability and reciprocity, could help realize the development promise of the Doha round. The views expressed are personal and should not be attributed to the World Bank.