Emerging International Trade Regime : Challenges before Developing Countries

The Uruguay Round Agreements and the establishment of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1995 resulted in a major step forward by bringing the agriculture and services sectors under the disciplines of GATT, bringing down the levels of tariffs and putting in place a dispute settlement mechanism. In order to realise the potential gains from trade, developing countries made substantial progress in liberalising their own trade policy. Tariffs were cut, and fewer products were covered by quantitative restrictions. However, the outcome for the developing countries, both in terms of market access payoffs and the burden of implementing certain WTO agreements, remained far below expectations.