The recent collapse of the Doha Round talks, especially after such failures as the Ministerial Conferences in Seattle (1999) and Cancun (2003), suggests that all is not well with the present system of multilateral trade negotiations. In particular, developing countries feel that these negotiations are occasions used by industrialized countries to extract trade concessions from them and shrink their development policy space. Although the Doha Round was launched as a ‘Development Round’, the emerging patterns in the negotiations suggest that ‘development’ was just the rhetoric to get a mandate for the launch of negotiations. As a result there has been little progress on developmental issues. The emerging trends and asymmetries in the multilateral trading system and the growing discontent among poor countries do not bode well for its sustainability. Research and Information System for Developing Counties (RIS), argues in this report that as weaker partners the developing countries have a stake in the multilateral rule-based trading system. However, the processes of agenda-setting and rule-making are heavily dominated by developed countries. The challenge before developing countries therefore is to seek reforms to ensure that the system serves their needs better. The report proposes an agenda for building a more development-friendly and sustainable trading system. It offers recommendations from a development perspective for revitalizing the Doha Round of trade talks in key areas of agriculture, market access for industrial goods, services, trade facilitation, intellectual property rights, and dispute settlement rules among others. It further highlights the potential of strengthening South-South Cooperation for building a development-friendly trading system. The World Trade and Development Report is an invaluable resource for policymakers, development economists, civil society organizations, and all others concerned about making globalization and trade work for development.
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