The name is absent

13

But between the developed and developing countries, large differences persist. As has long been
pointed out, there are biases in the trade barriers of developed countries against the exports of developing
countries. The most obvious instance is the array of measures that restrict trade in agricultural products.
Certain labor-intensive manufactures, most notably textiles and apparel, face relatively high tariffs. Tariff
escalation by the degree of processing of primary products likewise appears directed against products in
which developing countries have a comparative advantage. That these kinds of barriers introduce an
overall bias into the developed countries’ MFN trade policies appears to be borne out by the measure of
trade restrictiveness constructed by the IMF and World Bank. (IMF and World Bank, 2004). The
measure covers some of the more important trade barriers - MFN tariffs, core non-tariff barriers (NTBs),
domestic agricultural subsidy schemes, and the major preferential programs. As Hoekman (2004, p. 14)
notes, when the preferential programs of developed countries are left out of the calculations, the measure
indicates that low-income developing countries (as defined by the World Bank) would face greater
barriers to their exports to OECD countries than would other exporters from developed countries.⁷

On the other side of the coin, it is also a fact that, among developing countries, trade barriers on
non-agricultural goods and services remain high across-the-board. Over the last twenty years or so,
numerous countries have unilaterally lowered their tariffs on manufactures, lessening the disparity in
existing trade barriers. Some countries bound all their tariffs during the Uruguay Round but many bound
only some. Whether the coverage was complete or not, the great majority set their bound rates at levels
that were substantially higher than their current, applied rates. So many countries have accepted only
limited formal obligations in granting market access.

The gradual lessening of these embedded biases in trade barriers of both developed and
developing countries is a condition of realizing fuller equality of opportunity in market access.

⁷ It should also be remembered that many of the OECD countries trade on a duty free basis with each other as
members of the EU or NAFTA.

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