Role of the WTO in economic progress of developing countries

Underdevelopment of developing countries is in present one of the thorniest problems of the world. Economic globalisation brings about increasingly deeper integration of world markets and increasing volumes of international trade. Multilateral trading system represented by the World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the instruments that can, under certain circumstances, strongly contribute to economic progress of developing countries. The goal of the thesis is to reveal such circumstances and describe their coherence with the WTO and its predecessor the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Firstly, the thesis focuses on theoretical basis of international trade as an instrument of economic development. The thesis also describes possible imperfections of the theory specifically with regard to developing countries. Secondly, the role of the WTO in the process of liberalisation of international trade and its activities leading to reduction or elimination of the imperfections are described. The thesis shows that, on the known theoretical basis, it is possible for developing countries to gain from liberalisation of international trade on the multilateral basis. The thesis, however, also indicates that it is possible to achieve certain improvements in the existing system to the benefit of the developing countries and leading to their greater and more equitable involvement in the international division of labour.