Generalized System of Preferences in General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade/World Trade Organization: History and Current Issues

The present study investigates the history of the General System of Preferences within the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and World Trade Organization (WTO) systems with a particular view to define how developed and developing countries adapted their market policies to the demands of the multilateral trading system (MTS). It analyses the role of the most-favoured-nation (MFN) clause and its consequences to developing countries’ interests, within its parameters of differential market access. The study tries to explain the treatment of preferences in an objective light, presenting two current case studies: the formulation of the American GSP scheme and the dispute of India and the European Union in the WTO about the European Union’s GSP scheme. In addition to this, the study focuses on the conflict among developing countries on the issue of special and differential treatment. This focus will lead to a renewed reading of the history of MTS that takes into consideration the frailty of developing countries’ unity and that tries to understand why and to what extent this unity shattered along the way.