Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Biographical note
- List of abbreviations
- PART I Reflections on the contributions of Florentino Feliciano to international law
- PART II Insights into the World Trade Organization
- 5 Justice Feliciano and the WTO environmental cases: laying the foundations of a ‘constitutional jurisprudence’ with implications for developing countries
- 6 International trade law, human rights and theories of justice
- 7 Developing countries and the international trading system
- 8 North–South issues of foreign direct investments in the WTO: is there a middle-of-the-road approach?
- 9 The participation of developing countries in WTO dispute settlement and the role of the Advisory Centre on WTO Law
- 10 Reform of the WTO dispute settlement system: what to expect from the Doha Development Round?
- 11 Interpretation and Application of WTO Rules: Florentino Feliciano and the First Seven
- 12 Dispute settlement in the WTO: on the trail of a court
- 13 A proposal to introduce an Advocate General's position into WTO dispute settlement
- 14 Arbitration at the WTO: a terra incognita to be further explored
- 15 The challenges to the legitimacy of the WTO
- 16 The World Trade Organization after Cancún
- PART III The changing landscape of investment arbitration
- PART IV New challenges in international adjudication
- Bibliography of works by Florentino Feliciano
- Index
7 - Developing countries and the international trading system
from PART II - Insights into the World Trade Organization
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Biographical note
- List of abbreviations
- PART I Reflections on the contributions of Florentino Feliciano to international law
- PART II Insights into the World Trade Organization
- 5 Justice Feliciano and the WTO environmental cases: laying the foundations of a ‘constitutional jurisprudence’ with implications for developing countries
- 6 International trade law, human rights and theories of justice
- 7 Developing countries and the international trading system
- 8 North–South issues of foreign direct investments in the WTO: is there a middle-of-the-road approach?
- 9 The participation of developing countries in WTO dispute settlement and the role of the Advisory Centre on WTO Law
- 10 Reform of the WTO dispute settlement system: what to expect from the Doha Development Round?
- 11 Interpretation and Application of WTO Rules: Florentino Feliciano and the First Seven
- 12 Dispute settlement in the WTO: on the trail of a court
- 13 A proposal to introduce an Advocate General's position into WTO dispute settlement
- 14 Arbitration at the WTO: a terra incognita to be further explored
- 15 The challenges to the legitimacy of the WTO
- 16 The World Trade Organization after Cancún
- PART III The changing landscape of investment arbitration
- PART IV New challenges in international adjudication
- Bibliography of works by Florentino Feliciano
- Index
Summary
Birth of the GATT
The purpose of this chapter is to try to answer a fundamental question, namely, the extent to which the rules and objectives of WTO, and the GATT before it, are consistent or inconsistent with the development of developing countries. Stated differently, what are the benefits and risks inherent in an open, rule-based international trading system?
Three pillars of the world economy were set up in the aftermath of the Second World War. The Bretton Woods conference of 1944 resulted in the establishment of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The first was to aim, after the reconstruction of the devastation caused by the war, towards facilitating the flow of international capital from developed to developing countries. The second is to regulate the international monetary relationship, including foreign exchange and balance of payments policies of member countries. The two Bretton Woods institutions were supposed to be complemented by the creation of the International Trade Organization (ITO), charged with the task of regulating international trade relations. For that purpose, the Havana Conference was convened in 1947. It resulted in the Havana Charter, aiming at creating the ITO. The Havana Charter was not ratified by the US Congress. As a consequence, the ITO never saw the light of day.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Law in the Service of Human DignityEssays in Honour of Florentino Feliciano, pp. 58 - 75Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005