This article will address three misconceptions about the WTO, trade, aid and development. First, development is equal to Special and Differential Treatment (S&D) and aid. Second, aid does not belong to the WTO. Third, developing countries want to make the WTO a development institution. And in the conclusion I will set out a vision for where we should be on these issues in ten years' time.

Is development equal to S&D and aid in the WTO?

My proposition is that S&D and aid do not constitute the core development content of the WTO.

S&D issues are related to three main concerns of developing countries. First, market access (mainly concerned preferences); second, flexibility in the rules; and third, aid for technical assistance and capacity building. These concerns are reflected in over 150 provisions in the GATT since 1947. Market access was mainly about preferences which served to ameliorate and compensate somewhat for the increasingly high barriers erected in the USA, Japan and the EU against agricultural imports and textiles. Preferences were based on the colonialist system preferring some developing countries and not others, and were thus fundamentally discriminatory.

As the GATT developed, the rules reflected the competitive capacities of developed countries. In manufacturing, where developed countries were very competitive, the Uruguay Round (UR) Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMs) agreement abolished subsidies.