Trading into the future

At the heart of the principle of non-discrimination is the undertaking not to offer poorer conditions to the access of “like” products from foreign competitors to home markets, and not to offer less favourable conditions to any one or any group of trade partners that are part of the system. [...] So the three principles on which the trading system are based have not so much let us down as shown that they are limited in their ability to produce a trading system that meets the goal for which it was set up after the tragedy of the Second World War – to move the world away from conflict by making the members of the trading system mutually dependent, by contributing to the improvement of human [...] It led to the rejection, in 2003, of the “business as usual” approach to the negotiations and the consequent failure of the Cancun ministerial conference of the WTO. [...] The blatant unfairness of the system, the disregard for the genuine difficulties faced by the developing countries on the global trade stage, the gap between the development rhetoric and the harsh reality of the negotiating table, and the low priority consistently given to developing country issues, have all contributed to a significant loss of faith in the multilateral trading system and in the g [...] The clearest articulation of the purpose of the trading system is set out in the Preamble to the Marrakech Agreements establishing the WTO.