Strategies for Developing Countries in the Uruguay Round and Beyond

Abstract

The previous sections of this report have described how developing countries have taken two significant initiatives in recent years in their trade policy-making — unilateral trade liberalization and greater participation in the GATT Uruguay Round negotiations. While impressive, both of these initiatives are nonetheless still fragile. Participation in the Uruguay Round has, in part, been threat-driven, being stimulated by fears of growing protectionism in developed countries. It has also been driven, in part, in reaction to the move towards conditional MFN in the Tokyo Round. In turn, some of their trade liberalizing actions have, in part, been induced by financial necessity and conditionality from IMF and World Bank programs, and do not necessarily have solid domestic political support.^96,97 In some cases, especially in Asia and among the NICs, liberalization has been due to intense US bilateral pressure.