Implementing the Uruguay Round Agreements

My points are three:

At the Uruguay Round, developing countries took on an implementation burden for which they did not get equivalent value in return.

The implementation burden is a real economic burden, beyond the difficult domestic politics that market access concessions entail.

Trade negotiations are – institutionally speaking – an ineffective instrument for dealing with the economics of the implementation issue. Implementation issues are in substance development issues – issues that fit the World Bank’s working structure, but not the GATT/WTO’s. The World Bank and the WTO evolved as different institutions because they address different problems, taking on the implementation burden requires not so much ‘coherence’ between the Bank and the WTO as it requires that the World Bank lead.