Analytical Note, November 2011
LDC Package: State of Play and Proposed Language for WTO’s MC8.
The LDC Package was proposed by the WTO Director General, in his capacity as Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) Chair in May 2011 for early harvesting at the Eighth Ministerial Conference (MC8) in December 2011. Since then, these negotiations have run into problems due to the resistance of the United States. Nevertheless, the LDC Package enjoys broad support from other WTO members and the LDC Group in the WTO is continuing to push for results of the package at MC8.
This paper provides i) a brief of the issues within the LDC package: duty-free quota-free market access (DFQF); rules of origin in relation to DFQF; the services waiver; and cotton ii) why the LDC Package should be early harvested and iii) proposed language for insertion into the outcome document of MC8.
This article was tagged: Doha Development Round, Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Market Access, Ministerial Conference, Special and Differential Treatment, Tariffs, Trade for Development, Trade Liberalization, World Trade Organization (WTO)