WTO for Trade and Development Post-Doha

The WTO Members’ negotiations under the Doha mandate onspecial and differential treatment (‘SDT’) and developmentissues have made little progress. The gap between developedcountries and developing countries in this regard seems toowide to be bridged. This gap originates from a fundamental differencein their basic stances on cross-cutting issues. In principle,without prejudice to currently available SDT under individualWTO Agreements, developing countries should be given flexibilitiesin implementing WTO rules, which may result in the rebalancingof rights and obligations of WTO Members but only when policymeasures at issue can contribute to particular developing countries’development needs and no alternative less-trade restrictivemeasures are reasonably available. After reviewing WTO Members’discussions since the adoption of the Doha Ministerial Declaration,this article suggests a ‘measure-specific ex ante approach’for a workable solution to bridging the gap between developedcountries and developing countries on SDT and development issues.