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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Article
Author(s)
Lara Nachkebia
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DOI:10.17265/1537-1514/2022.02.002
Affiliation(s)
Caucasus International University, Tbilisi, Georgia
ABSTRACT
There are no definitions of “developed” or “developing” countries within the World Trade Organization (WTO). Instead, developing countries are determined on the basis of self-selection. As a result of self-selection, a number of member states with diverse levels of economic development are perceived as “developing” and, as a result, enjoy special rights embodied in Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT) provisions of the WTO Agreements. Unsurprisingly, developed countries, discontented with current state of affairs, are not willing to extend S&DT provisions to all self-declared developing countries (DCs) and, instead, call for further differentiation among DCs. The latter however, and most notably advanced DCs like India and China, support current classification method. As a result, S&DT talks at the multilateral level have remained deadlocked for decades. For any change to happen, it is essential that all WTO member states, regardless of their development level, come back to negotiating table and reach a consensus. In order to trigger such negotiations, as the first step, it is of utmost importance for both developed and developing countries to disregard the unsupported misconceptions that ultimately deter them from starting fresh negotiations. With this in mind, the article explores and challenges three significant arguments often used by opposing parties causing the deadlock: first, the argument of the developed countries suggesting that all the rules of the WTO law are applicable to the developed countries, and only some to self-declared DCs; second, defense of current status quo by the developing countries on the grounds that the ability to self-declare as “developing” was a decisive factor for certain DCs to join the WTO back in 1995; and third, assertions according to which any change to the current classification method will drastically swing the bargaining power in favour of developed countries.
KEYWORDS
country classification, developing countries, reform, S&D treatment, WTO
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