Emerging Powers in the Wto: Developing Countries and Trade in the 21st Century

The most important dimension of globalization in the last thirty years and especially since 2000 has been the dramatic increase of developing country participation in world trade and the emergence of a number of powers such as Brazil, China and India that are playing an important role in the global economy and in the WTO. But many other developing countries continue to struggle to transform their economies, handicapped by institutional constraints and protection against their exports both in developed and developing country markets. This volume examines the main factors for developing country trade performance in the last thirty years, their own trade policies, market access issues they face, and their increasingly more effective participation in the WTO and the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations. The last part addresses the future role of the WTO in the international trade system in connection with the challenges it faces from the multitude of preferential trade agreements such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the US and the EU; and recommends an action program for the more effective participation of developing countries in the world trade.