Tokyo, Sept. 13: The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) ministerial meeting to-day cleared the way for to-morrow’s unanimous adoption of the Tokyo Declaration, when a compromise solution was reached over the question of preferential treatment for goods of developing countries in the markets of developed nations.
The controversy had centred on the use of the term “preferential treatment” in respect of goods from developing nations in the developed countries’ markets.
Some countries, especially the U.S., wanted to avoid the use of this term because of various problems in their own countries. The compromise reached is that instead of the term “preferential treatment”, the words “differential treatment” resulting in special benefits would be used in the text of the declaration in effect to the treatment of goods from developing countries. Sources from the leading developing countries pointed out that this could result only in preferential treatment.
The Indian Commerce Minister, Mr. Chattopadhyaya, told the session to-day that in his view differential treatment could only mean preferential treatment and he accepted it as such. This was the tenor of the statements made by the delegations of other developing countries also.
These sources said that both in tariff and non-tariff fields the developing countries expected to get preferential treatment in terms of what the industrial countries give each other. They were confident that the developing countries would get additional benefits. As long as the substance was there, the developing countries were not going to squabble.
Published - September 14, 2023 03:57 am IST
