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Contents
> Director-General’s letter to journalists
> The Doha Development Agenda
> Agriculture
> Cotton
> Services
> Market access, non-agricultural products
> Intellectual property (TRIPS)
> Trade facilitation
> Rules: ad, scm including fisheries subsidies
> Rules: regional agreements
> Dispute settlement
> Trade and environment
> Small economies
> Trade, debt and finance
> Trade and technology transfer
> Technical cooperation
> Least-developed countries
> Special and differential treatment
> Implementation issues
> Electronic commerce
> Members and accessions
> Members
> Bananas
> Statistics, Textiles and Clothing
> Statistics, Facts and Figures
> Jargon buster, Country groupings
> Jargon buster, An informal guide to ‘WTOspeak’
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Doha decision on least-developed
countries back to top
At the Doha Ministerial Conference in
November 2001, members renewed their commitment to help least-developed
countries (LDCs). Concretely, members committed themselves to “the
objective” of duty-free, quota-free market access for products
originated from LDCs. They also promised to consider additional
measures to improve poorest countries' access to their wealthier
markets. And they agreed to make it easier for least-developed
countries to join the WTO.
On 12 February 2002, the Sub-Committee on Least-Developed
Countries agreed to a work programme in order to implement the commitments
of the Doha Declaration.
On market access, members will
- work to identify and examine all market
access barriers confronting least-developed countries’ products
- annually review
all market access improvements
- examine possible additional measures
to improve market access for least-developed countries’ products.
On technical assistance, priority
is to be given to least-developed countries. Members are encouraged to
significantly increase their contribution to technical assistance programmes
for these countries.
Additional measures to improve market access
include helping least-developed countries diversify their exports. Members
will consider proposals related to trade and relevant to diversification,
and will support the work of other international agencies in this field.
The
sub-committee will annually review and possibly make recommendations
on the participation of least-developed countries in the multilateral
trading system.
Least-developed countries in the WTO back to top
The WTO recognizes as “least-developed countries” those
given the designation by the United Nations. There are currently 50 least-developed
countries on the UN list, of which 32 are WTO members: Angola, Bangladesh,
Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Chad,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau,
Haiti, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique,
Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands,
Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia.
On 10 December 2002, the General Council adopted
a decision which sets guidelines to help least-developed countries join
the WTO more quickly and easily. The decision says WTO members will restrain
in seeking concessions and commitments from LDCs negotiating membership.
It also says they will be given the transition periods and transitional
arrangements foreseen for least-developed countries that were members
since the WTO creation.
Since then, two LDCs have successfully concluded
their negotiations to become members of the WTO: Nepal and Cambodia,
in 2003 (see separate note on accession). There are ten least-developed
countries currently negotiating WTO membership: Afghanistan, Bhutan,
Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Laos, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Sudan, Vanuatu
and Yemen.
Participation in world trade back to top
Between 1990 and 2004, least-developed countries
have increased their merchandise exports share from 0.5% to 0.7% and
their merchandise imports share from 0.7% to 0.8%. But they remain marginal
participants in world trade. Their merchandise exports, as a group, grew
by 34 per cent in 2004 to US$62 billion which can mainly be attributed
to oil and commodity-exporting LDCs. The merchandise imports of LDCs
continue to exceed exports, rising by more than 17 per cent to US$ 71
billion.
The picture is similar in services. Globally,
in 2003, trade in commercial services accounted for about one-fifth of
total trade.
But for least-developed countries, commercial services trade accounted
only for about one-eighth of their total exports , that is, US$7 billion.
Imports of LDCs in commercial services increased to US$17 billion. The
least-developed countries’ deficit of US$10 billion in commercial services
trade continues to be larger than their deficit in merchandise trade.
Preferential market access back to top
Several developed and transition economies — including
some of the major markets for least-developed countries’ exports — granted
duty-free and quota-free market access for all or almost all exports
from least-developed countries. They include Canada, the EU, New Zealand,
Norway and Switzerland. Among the major developing countries, Singapore
and Hong Kong, China already offer duty-free and quota-free access on
virtually all products, including products from least-developed countries.
Some
other developing countries such as Mauritius, Egypt, and the Republic
of Korea, have also given least-developed countries preferential duty-free
access to their markets, albeit for more limited ranges of products.
Some
of the preferences are based on regions. For instance, India gives
preferential access to least-developed fellow-members of the South
Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Morocco gives preferential
access to 33 African least-developed countries. And the US gives
enhanced market access opportunities for 25 least-developed countries
of the
37
Sub-Saharan African beneficiaries under the African Growth and Opportunity
Act (AGOA).
Recent initiatives have also been taken by member
governments. For instance, the expansion of the European Communities,
which came
into force 1 May 2004, has effectively enlarged the market destination
from
15 to 25 countries for LDC exports which enjoy duty free and quota
free access. Since January 2004, China has extended the tariff concessions
to India under the Bangkok Agreement. This initiative came in addition
to the preferential tariff rates granted to Bangladesh, India,
Laos, the Republic of Korea and Sri Lanka.
Participation in the WTO’s work back to top
In the past few years, least-developed countries
have become more active in the WTO and its negotiations. Some issues
are of vital interest to them, such as cotton which is negotiated in
a sub-committee under agriculture (see separate note). But their participation
is hampered by the small size of their delegations and, for some, the
lack of a mission in Geneva.
To increase the number of WTO experts in
those countries, the WTO Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation
has stepped up its activities. They include: national and regional seminars,
technical missions, workshops, conferences and symposiums. In 2004, least-developed
countries have been involved in a total of 204 activities, which represented
40 per cent of all technical assistance activities. More specifically,
in 2004, 13 national activities in LDCs covered one of the four areas
referred to in the July package.
For non-residents — delegations which
do not have an office in Geneva — “Geneva
Weeks” are organized. Least-developed countries’ representatives in other European
cities and officials from the capitals are invited to Geneva for a briefing on
the state of play of work in the WTO. Non-residents are also kept up to date
through briefing notes from the Secretariat. There are 22 WTO members and 9 observers
who are not represented permanently in Geneva, 14 of them least-developed countries.
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Other material:
> Sub-Committee on Least-Developed Countries
> Doha
declaration
> Doha declaration
explained
> Development
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