Long-Term Perspective and Policy Integration Project,

1. Stock-taking: The Cancun deadlock and how we got there Developing countries in general and African countries in particular were not much involved in the work of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Although there has been a more active participation since the Uruguay Round, many developing countries still face structural and institutional constraints as regards participation in international trade and the international trading system under the World Trade Organization (WTO). The limited involvement of many developing countries is often attributed to the fact that most of these countries have small missions and not enough human resources to be able to closely monitor the work of the trade-related organisations in Geneva. But there also are a number of reasons related to institutional pitfalls in the world trading system. Nelson Mandela, Former President of South Africa commented on the Uruguay Round in the following terms: “The developing countries were not able to ensure that the rules accommodated their realities…it was mainly the preoccupations and problems of the advanced industrial economies that shaped the agreement”. This reflected the genera