Challenges faced by small island states within the World Trade Organization

Abstract

The central objective of this dissertation is to evaluate the extent to which small island developing states, which are characterized by economic vulnerability, face challenges in participating effectively in the multilateral trading system, within the rules-based regime of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Consideration of this issue led to a number of related reflections including the extent to which the WTO is addressing these challenges and the particular approaches that can be adopted in this regard. From a critical perspective, this entailed an assessment concerning the negotiations which have been carried out within this arena, and whether their respective outcomes have been constructive. This method adopted in this research is to scan WTO documents and related literature in reports by International Organizations, books and journals in order to assess the demands of small vulnerable economies and to assess the response by the WTO. In addition the small states and the WTO. Within this organisation the term Small vulnerable Economies (SVEs) is utilised to describe the smaller member states. It emerges from the literature review and from the responses of the experts that the issue is very complicated, due to various facts, not least of which is the 2001 Ministerial Declaration at the meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Doha, that a Work Programme is essential so as to ensure the integration of small vulnerable economies within the broader context of the multilateral trading system but at the same time made it clear that the WTO should not have a special category of small island developing states. Factors that contributed to the failure of SVEs in attaining their quest for special and differential treatment include (a) the fear oflarger developing countries that the advantages they enjoy will be diluted as a result (b) the fact that many SVEs register a relatively high GDP per capita and ( c) the 'free-riding' by larger states who joined the SVE group with the hope of also achieving special treatment, thereby weakening the ability of small states to push forward their case.