The World Trade Organization's Role For Developing Countries Under The Agriculture Negotiations

Abstract

The World Trade Organization (WTO) as the successor of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was established in 1995. Since WTO provides a platform for coping with trade disputes and observing national trade policies, it is considered as the guardian of rule-based, fair and competitive global trading system. WTO is a highly controversial organization. WTO is generally criticized on the grounds that it is an institution where only developed countries’ interests are considered. From WTO opponents’ view, WTO is a “rich man’s club” which benefits Developed Countries more than Developing Countries. Apart from its mission of liberalising international trade, the WTO also aims to help developing and least developed countries to integrate into the global trade and support their development process. As an explicit indication of the crucial place of development in the WTO’s work, the concept of Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT) was integrated into all WTO agreements and these S&DT provisions give special rights to developing and least-developed countries in undertaking their commitments. The main aim of this thesis is to put forward developing countries’ competence to shape WTO negotiations and their effectiveness in decision-making process. This thesis focuses on S&DT provisions in the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture and S&DT instruments under WTO agriculture negotiations. The analysis made from the dimension of the WTO agriculture negotiations in this study provides proofs demonstrating that WTO is not driven solely by the interests of developed countries.