Preferential measures for developing countries implemented within the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade failed to achieve their purported
goal of facilitating economic development; this failure was due to their
weak theoretical underpinnings and poor policy design. Not only were
the demands developing countries made for discriminatory preferences
largely ineffectual, their demands for preferential treatment, together
with their forgoing full participation in the multilateral trading system,
fundamentally reduced the obligation of developed countries to consider
the interests of developing countries in future negotiation rounds.
Thus the winning of preferences was rendered a pyrrhic victory for developing
countries.
Keywords: Economic development, trade liberalization, GATT, special
and differential treatment
