Market Access for Manufactured Exports from Developing Countries: Trends and Prospects

This chapter discusses the main trade impediments facing developing countries’ exports of manufactures to developed country markets and the prospects for improved market access. It is divided into two sections: the first describes the chief characteristics of the evolving structure of protection, and in the second the issues relating to market access for developing country exports of manufactures in the ongoing MTNs are analysed. It is argued (i) that no broad coalition with substantial participation of developing countries among its leading actors is likely to emerge, (ii) that the abandonment of S & D rights has very limited appeal to the vast majority of developing exporters of manufactures and, thus, is a very unlikely outcome, and (iii) that the prospects for improved market access through reciprocal bargaining basically depend on structural adjustment in the North Atlantic economies. The fact that the latter requires investment and, therefore growth, emphasizes the crucial importance of the Uruguay Round for leading the OECD economies to a higher growth path than that which can be envisaged under present macroeconomic policies in the North.