For much of the post-Second World War era, maintaining global trade governance has largely been the responsibility of developed countries, particularly under the 1947 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT 1947). With the launch of the Uruguay Round, developing countries began to play a more active and consistent role in global trade governance. However, developing countries had and continue to struggle with how to ensure that their concerns and interests are reflected in global trade policy outcomes.

Today, the need for collective action by developing countries is greater and more urgent than ever, for several reasons. First, the world economy has an ever greater importance for developing countries’ national development, economic policy, environmental space and sovereignty. Second, the development process is increasingly complex and not conducive to sectoral or narrow approaches. Third, developed countries continue to dominate multilateral processes, institutions and outcomes in ways that impact developing countries’ political and economic space, as well as their opportunities to use their economic, social and environmental endowments.