How to Reflect Better the Interests of Developing Countries in the World Trading System?

Recognizing that the development dimension of the world trading system has been increasingly important, we would like to analyze how the WTO system shall implement effectively the preferences for developing countries with an aim of exploring the development-friendly policies. First, we examine development of the preferential treatment rules under the GATT/WTO system. Second, we analyze how the S&D rules of WTO Agreements and GSP work in practice, while identifying their limitations. Then, we discuss policy recommendations for the effective implementation of S&D provisions, in particular, in the areas of the Anti-Dumping Agreement, the Subsidies Agreement and the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU). Among policy recommendations include (i) the higher thresholds of de minimis dumping margin and of negligible volume of imports, and differentiated procedures governing facts available for the AD Agreement, (ii) preferential rules for non-actionable subsidies and more time for consultations for the Subsidies Agreement, (iii) damage compensation and more remedy options for DSU and (iv) the objective rules on eligible countries and products, and graduation for the improved GSP.