Developing countries in the world trading system: From GATT, 1947, to the third ministerial meeting of WTO, 1999

In what follows, I first describe how concerns about development of less developed countries were reflected in the evolution of the multilateral trading system, from GATT 1947 to the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiation and the establishment of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In this description, I include a discussion of the participation of the developing countries in the GATT as it evolved. I then go on (Section 3) to discuss the emerging issues in the built-in agenda of the Uruguay Round and in a possible future Round of multilateral negotiations from the perspective of developing countries. In Section 4, I summarise and offer some concluding remarks.