Does the WTO put trade ahead of economic development, and ignore other problems of developing countries?
Trade and economic development are not alternative objectives. Trade fosters growth and development. Developing countries with open trade policies have consistently grown faster than closed economies. The great majority of WTO members more than three quarters are developing countries. They are members by their own choice, and full participants in all the organization s work and decisions. In the early years of the multilateral system, not many developing countries were GATT members. Those who were made few commitments to open their markets to imports. Most put their faith in policies of import substitution, hoping this would encourage the growth of their own production capacity, and stayed largely on the sidelines in trade negotiations up to the end of the 1970s. Disappointment with the consequences, and the example provided by a few countries which adopted more liberal and market-oriented policies and enjoyed much faster growth, led to a sea-change in the trade policies of many develo
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