This is another factor in the collapse of the World Trade negotiations.
An encouraging sign is that measures are already in place to accommodate developing countries in the World Trade Organization system. One of these measures is Special and Differential Treatment. This means that developing countries are treated differently from developed countries in order to help them with compliance and other issues. One of the most important examples is that developing countries are provided with preferential market access through schemes such as the Generalized System of Preferences. Furthermore, developing countries receive time concessions and technical aid in implementing WTO Agreements.
According to the above, the main problem in the lack of focus seen in the World Trade negotiations is a basic lack of mutual understanding of the need to focus on the most important purpose of World Trade and globalization. Indeed, globalization can mean the upliftment of millions of poor in the world. Developed countries however need to understand the need for new paradigms in business. In conducting WTO conferences then, it is perhaps best that the focus should be cultivating this new awareness rather than focusing on the issues directly. The negotiations failed because there is a lack of mutual understanding between developed and developing countries. One could see this as a mental barrier to an understanding of the need for change. Developed countries are aware of the need for more ecologically sound practices in business. They are also aware of the need for poverty reduction. In World Trade negotiations,...
The root of the problem is therefore not the issues themselves, but the understanding of the importance that these issues hold for all concerned. Developed countries should also understand that new policies will be to the advantage not only of developing countries, but also to the developed world and on a wider scale to future generations.
For the sake of the world's future, it is vital to find ways in which to reconcile the need to create more wealth for the wealthy and to create means of living for the poor. If delegates from the developed world can remove their mental barriers, they can perhaps also remove the trade and subsidy barriers that are currently keeping poor countries from alleviating their economic crises on a permanent, long-term scale.
Sources
Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. Developing Countries and the WTO. 2007. http://www.dti.gov.uk/europeandtrade/developing-countries/index.html
Environment News Service. World Trade Negotiations Collapse. 2003. http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2003/2003-09-15-02.asp
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Barriers to Trade. 2006. http://www.hewlett.org/Programs/GlobalAffairs/tradebarriers/
World Vision eNews. Geneva: Trade Negotiations Collapse; Poor Nations Hurt Most by WTO Failure. 2007, World Vision, Inc. http://www.worldvision.org/about_us.nsf/child/enews_geneva_20060822?open&lid=WTO_Fail
