The Pros And Cons Of The Uruguay Round

The most remarkable fact of the Uruguay round is that during the negotiations, the developing countries failed to form a common block against the developed ones. On the one hand, the newly industrialised countries (NICs), like south east Asia, had achieved high levels of productivity and had improved their competitiveness levels. Their effort to increase exports in terms of high capital gains rates (export profit) imply low local purchasing power. On the other hand, for the rest of the less developed countries (LDC), such as China, India and Brazil (current BRICs), a new GATT meant better prices in raw materials, a lending price stabilization and a general restructure of the international financial system. It was mainly the second group of

Even if the outcome of the Round was a clear one, it would be very hard to identify its effects on 'developing countries' in general terms. The general outcome could be described as favourable to the sum of the developing world, with only TRIPs and the restrictions on future sovereignty of trade policy posing negative effects. But the advantages seem to be clearly for the most advanced of the developing countries, which already have developed basic services to offer and greater possibilities of attracting potential foreign investments. The new regime in services and anti-dumping would, however, offer gains to the least developed countries in the long-run, as long as they become more efficient in exporting the former or become more vulnerable to the

This unequal distribution of the round's benefits is attributed to the different competitive advantages every one of these groups bears. To be more precise, Asian countries have developed greatly on the textile and manufacturing sectors, the Latin American countries have invested in agricultural production (fruits, cocoa, coffee, etc) whilst in Africa the situation is different. Due to the political unrest there, many states are even now struggling with basic developmental issues like public services, health and infrastructure. It remains quite difficult for them to gain from the liberalisation of their markets, because of their low-income status, while on the contrary high- and middle-income developing countries gain significantly more from trade liberalisation. There are numerous reasons why this happens, but they usually include a strategic orientation toward exporting trade, increasing importance as a market for other countries, and a higher share of manufactures and other goods that potentially increase their competitiveness towards industrialised