Developing countries make up the majority of the WTO membership. Under the WTO, they
are known as ‘developing countries’ and ‘least developed countries’. Unfortunately, the WTO does not state specific definitions of the terms ‘developing countries’ and ‘least developed countries’. During the period from 1980 to 2000, it has been observed that the
298 Gross National Product (GNP);Matsushita et al. 2003; see also Jiang 2002. 299 Matsushita et al. 2003; see also Jiang 2002.
300
Regarding Article XVIII of GATT 1947, it has observed that the ten original GATT contracting parties were developing countries which consider as Brazil, Burma, China, Ceylon, Chile, Cuba, India, Pakistan, Syria, and Lebanon. Also, it has been observed that China, Lebanon, and Syria withdrew from the GATT that was in the first few years of the GATT. See, Matsushita et al. 2003.
301
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share of developing countries in international trade was approximately unchanged: 27.4 per
cent in 1980 and 28.8 per cent in 1999302.
The WTO states that “[t]here are no WTO definitions of ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ countries” 303 . Members announce for themselves whether they are ‘developed’ or
‘developing’ countries. However, other “members can challenge the decision of a member to make use of provisions available to developing countries”304. It may be supposed that the
WTO has not created any criteria because the members could not agree on a definition and
the organization does not want to be criticised by scholars of law, economic or even politics.
Also, the WTO might be far away from making distinctions between developing and
developed countries, because that could led to some states might be deterred from joining the
WTO if it had rigid definitions of ‘developing country’ as well as that would lead to a disadvantage for some countries that want to benefit from the WTO provisions.
In November 1999, the Ministerial Conference of the WTO in Seattle, Washington, created a
step forward in the identification process for developing countries via the Advisory Centre on
WTO Law305. In general, member countries being classified as developed countries,
economies in transition, or least developed countries306. The Advisory Centre classifies
developing countries by their share of world trade and per capita income for the last three
years based on the data of World Bank statistics. Therefore, developing countries are
separated into three categories: “1) Category A: more than 1.5 per cent of world trade or High
302 Ibid. 303
See, World Trade Organization 2013, WTO |Development. Who are the developing countries in the WTO?. Available from: http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/devel_e/d1who_e.htm [viewed, February 17, 2013].
304Ibid.
305 Matsushita et al. 2003; see also Jiang 2002. 306
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Income; (2) Category B: more than 0.15 per cent but less than 1.5 per cent of world trade; and
(3) Category C: less than 0.15 per cent of world trade”307
. While there is no classification for
least developed countries, it may be assumed that they might have just a little or none of the
world’s trade. The Advisory Centre’s criteria might be considered best suited for identifying developing countries. This may be because the Advisory Centre is detached from the WTO
and has its own legal personality308.
The draft agreement that established the World Trade Organization states that
There is a need for positive efforts designed to ensure that developing countries especially the least developed among them, secure a share in the growth of international trade commensurate with the needs of their economic development309.
In addition, there are many provisions in the WTO agreement granting developing countries
‘special and differential treatment’; it is also significant for them to achieve the goal of securing special and differential treatment310. The term ‘developing countries’ is not
clearly defined under the WTO agreements nor the GATT regime; the classification is
given on “an ad hoc basis and primarily through self-selection”311
. ‘Least-developed’
countries were not mentioned by the WTO Agreement but their definition has been based on
how the United Nations identified them312.
307 Jiang 2002.
308 Matsushita et al. 2003; see also Jiang 2002. 309 Jiang 2002.
310
Matsushita et al. 2003; see also Jiang 2002.
311 Matsushita et al. 2003.
312 The UN Committee for Development Planning periodically makes this determination by reference to four
criteria: per capita income, population size, quality-of-life index, and economic diversification. See, UN (1994)
Report on the Twenty-Ninth Session, 12-14 January 1994, Committee for Development Planning, Economic and
Social Council Official Records, 1994, Supplement No.2, New York: United Nations Publications, E/1994/22. (1994) at 64, 67.
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Indeed, one might demand an answer to the question ‘what countries are developing
countries?’ particularly under the GATT/WTO 313
. The vagueness of the notion of
‘developing countries’ was argued in the WTO in negotiations about the accession of China, which is considered a developing country314. It was suggested that the term ‘developing
countries’ required clear criteria to describe and identify the status315
. It is thought that the
reasons for vagueness of the term ‘developing countries’ might be because the term is used
for different aims in many international contexts and there is a lack of international consensus
on the term316. The purpose of the following paragraphs is to illustrate how ‘developing
countries’ is classified by some significant organizations, which may lead the WTO to include these definitions for the purpose of classifying countries specifically as developing
countries.