The Studies On The Special And Differential Treatment Of Developing Country Members In The WTO

The history of giving some special treatments to the developing country canretrospect to the early age of the GATT. After the Tokyo Round, giving the special andpreferential treatment to developing country set up as a principle. During the UruguayRound, the Special and Differential Treatment of Developing Country Members (S&D)evolved to a complicated system and embodied in the provisions of nearly everyagreements of the Final Act. But during the Uruguay Round, the S&D continued thetrend of the Tokyo Round and developed from a special right which had focused on theprotection of preferential market access and the balance of payment to a systemcharacterized by a wide range of delays, technical assistances, exemptions of certaincommitments etc; while in nature, it evolved from an engine of offering the opportunitiesof trade development to an instrument of involving more developing countries into themultilateral trade regime and fulfill their commitments. All in all, after the UruguayRound, the S&D has a characteristic of transitionalism and symbolism due to its changedfunction. Besides, from the first preferential provision Article 18 to the S&D, theprovisions' ambiguity and character of best effort has never changed. The imbalances between the developing countries and the developed countries and theconflict of the S&D and the contract nature of the GATT/WTO determined theprovisions' titular in name but not in reality. Although in appearance it evolved into acomplicated system, its symbolic nature is obvious. The inconsistence of the appearanceand the nature reflects the differences and compromises of views of South and North. In the process of China's entering into the GATT/WTO, many western developedcountries tried to place obstacles in the road in order to lift up the threshold of theentrance so as to deprive China of the right of using the S&D though denying her ofdeveloping country statue. Although China fundamentally realized her intention ofentering into the GATT/WTO as a developing country, she had to concede in certainconditions for several reasons. Consequently China cannot avoid some obstacles whenusing the provisions of the S&D in the fields of Agriculture, Textiles and clothing,safeguards and Anti-dumping etc. Since the deficiencies of the S&D partly offset thenegative aspects of the concession, the bad influence of the consequence can be furtherdiminished provide that China use the rules properly. The paper is divided into three chapters: the first chapter discusses the history of theS&D; the second explains and evaluates the provisions of the S&D; the third relates theobstacles which were placed before China when she insisted her developing countrystatue during the processes of entering into the GATT/WTO and the effort China exertedto safeguard her right. The paper also attempted to give some advice on counter-measurerefer to the obstacles. The developing countries in the Uruguay Round are divided into two categories, that isthe developing countries and the least developed countries (LDCs). Since the latter havea little influence on the liberalizations, the S&D exempts some substantial commitmentsof them. So the paper omits the discussion of the provisions, which only apply to theLDCs. So the developing countries in the paper only refer to those who are not the LDCs.