Promoting positive action clauses in world trade agreements

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) system of special and differential treatment (SDT) has survived into the WTO, but in a diluted form with the greatest 'concessions' reserved for the least developed states, while other developing countries are expected to move broadly in the same direction as industrial countries, albeit at a slower pace. Under the Agreement on Agriculture, for example, the least developed countries were exempted from most of the tariff and subsidy cuts, and for other developing countries the agreed reductions were smaller than for developed countries and are being implemented over a longer period. The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) also accepts that developing countries should be allowed to make fewer and less liberal commitments.