trade system. These contradictions include issues in agricultural trade, labor-intensive products exported from developing countries, and the infant industry clause. As structured, GATT’s rules concerning agriculture portrayed a message that; “International trade should be free, but not for agricultural goods.” Consequently, rules governing agricultural goods, many of interest to developing countries, were not even addressed in the GATT Agreement. Moreover, when regulation of the agricultural sector had been raised for review in the past, such as in the Tokyo Round, it was met by strong opposition from industrialized nations. In such a case of the Tokyo Round, the European Community refused to discuss its Common Agricultural Policy in any degree. Except for a few commodities, trade in agricultural products has escaped international regulations. To elaborate on this point, both the United States and European Commission/European Union (EEC/EU) have intervened in production and trade of their agricultural products through supportive and stabilization measures. In particular, their intervention comes in the form of price support and subsidies to domestic farmers. This practice makes it virtually impossible for developing countries to compete in the agricultural market. In fact, “Developing countries lose about $60 billion a year in potential exports because their farmers can’t compete with heavily subsidized agricultural goods produced in industrial countries.” The second design contradiction of GATT/WTO rules involves labor-intensive products, such as textiles, clothing, and footwear. These products are of particular interest to developing countries. According to GATT rules, “International trade in manufactured goods should be subject to reductions in tariffs and other barriers, but not for the main labor-intensive products of export interest to developing counties.” Rules w...
