The name is absent

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The Stiglitz-Charlton third and fourth principles are less problematic, being similar to what we
have discussed under the headings of procedural justice and the limitations imposed on equitable
supporting rules by the need to respect differences in national social and economic beliefs and practices.

7.2 Achieving equality of opportunity and distributive equity in the Doha Round

We have presented our interpretation of fairness under the heading of two criteria: equality of opportunity
and distributive equity. At the present time, it cannot be said that the global trading system corresponds
closely to these two criteria, and there is ample scope for improvement in the Doha Round. Some of the
rules supporting market access, as we have indicated earlier, do not sufficiently accommodate different
national conditions, institutions or policy preferences to be generally accepted as fair, even when taken as
a package. Procedural justice is also far from having been reached. However, we will confine our
remaining comments to the primary issue of fairness in the market-access arrangements prevailing
between developed and developing countries.²¹

Equality of opportunity in the negotiation of gains in market access is a definition of reciprocity.
We have noted earlier that reciprocity has served well enough in past negotiations among developed
countries but that, when applied to negotiations between developed and developing countries in the
Uruguay Round, it appeared to be a very vague and uncertain criterion. The reason was that, whereas for
the developed countries, the criterion could be applied within each of the sectors or issues on which
mutual concessions were negotiated, between developed and developing countries there was much less
symmetry in the sectors and issues being negotiated, and large trade-offs were made across them. This is
unfortunate since fairness can be more readily assessed when negotiations relate to like sectors or issues.
However, so far as market-access negotiations are concerned, some bargaining across sectors is

²¹ It is an anomaly of the present arrangements that removal of some of the existing distortions could seriously
penalize some small countries. The reduction of subsidies and trade barriers to agricultural products is likely to have
adverse effects on a number of countries that now enjoy preferred access to developed country markets or benefit
from subsidized food imports. For some small countries, heavily dependent on a single export crop, the
consequences may be particularly severe. The most elementary notion of fairness dictates some form of
compensation.

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