WTO

The WTO Doha Round of multinational trade negotiations is labelled ¡§development
round¡¨ to highlight the fact that progress could be achieved through the enhanced
integration of the poor countries into the world economy. Since the trade agenda
focuses to a large extent on the level of direct and indirect trade barriers as well as other
aspects of trade and competition policy, an important aspect of the relative trade
performance of developing countries has been neglected somewhat. This paper will
argue that, in addition to trade barriers, other trade costs, such as communications and
transport costs, have to be taken into account as well. These other costs can be
significantly higher in developing countries, which impedes their successful integration
into world markets.
1. Introduction
The economic consequences of the increasing globalisation of the world economy, that
is, a closer integration of production and markets, have been discussed intensively over
the last de...