The name is absent

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opportunity, however, has to be modified in some degree to allow for distributive equity — understood as
the promotion of development. In this framework, the criterion of efficiency is not a primary yardstick of
fairness, but it is relevant in choosing among ways in which fairness can be realized.

We have noted that, in market-access negotiations, reciprocity is of most value in realizing
fairness, when negotiations are confined to like sectors or sub-sectors; it becomes more difficult to assess
fairness when negotiations are more comprehensive. But in assessing fairness, a clear distinction should
at least be drawn between market-access negotiations — to which reciprocity applies — and other rule-
making issues — for which other standards of fairness are relevant. We have also noted that the
substance of supporting rules and the introduction of new rules face limits posed by the diversity that
exists among countries in their aims and conditions. Rules will only be regarded as fair if they respect the
different, but strongly-held, national preferences.

We have argued that, in the context of the global trading system, distributive equity has meaning
only in one particular sense. It has to be understood that the global trading system is not a vehicle for
income transfers but an arrangement for furthering mutually advantageous commercial relations among
countries. Since trade can help promote the development of the poorer countries, the relevant
consideration is the effect of the system in doing so. Distributive equity thus turns around the question of
whether the trading system gives preference to the efficient growth of production in the poorer nations
through sales in foreign or domestic markets.

At present, the bias in the trade barriers of developed countries against goods and services in
which developing countries may have a comparative advantage is only modestly offset by the non-
reciprocal preferential arrangements that are in force. However, apart from those that apply to the least
developed and other mostly small and poor countries, these preferential arrangements are not likely to be
improved. Developing countries generally would, in any case, probably benefit more from a progressive
reduction in the bias in developed countries' trade barriers. If this were accompanied by the embrace of
fuller reciprocity in tariff reductions on their part, they would move into a more equal partnership with the
developed countries in the global trading system. With the rise of the large, industrially more advanced

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