Free Trade or Fair Trade: Solving the Dilemma

The multilateral trading system maintains special trading regime for developing countries in GATT/WTO, namely "Special and Differential Treatment" (SDT). The extent to which this regime has supported the special needs of developing countries for trade and development is always questionable. Is SDT a fair trade tool for developing countries, or is it just an exceptional regime that distorts free trade? These are the questions that this book tries to answer. It develops a discussion on the meanings of fair trade using a three dimensional approach. It finds out that the idea of the level playing field in economic terms is the most relevant to achieveing missing fairness in international trade. But how the system can help the economies of developing countries to develop under that idea, is another proposed question. Two SDT components are preferred, namely policy spaces and technology transfer. By applying the appropriate trade policy for the local economy and using recent technologies of developed economies, developing countries can be able to develop expeditiously as their developed counterparts and compete with them from the same level in the trading field.