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offered to one contracting party automatically becomes available to all others.

The effect has been that the developing countries have benefited from tariff and

other concessions made by the developed world in successive MTNs, while doing

little to liberalise access to their own markets in return. Many manufactured

products continue to be excluded from developing country markets by protectionist

tariffs, import licensing procedures etc.

below).

7 The developing countries complain about the restraints on their own exports

of textiles and clothing imposed under the Multi Fibre Arrangement (see para 9

In addition, those of them who are exporters of temperate agricultural

foodstuffs (primarily the Latin Americans) join the Australians and New Zealanders

in attacking the limitations on access to certain developed country markets (eg the

EC): they also dislike the subsidised disposal on world markets of agricultural

surpluses. The other main bone of contention for the developing countries is the

tendency of industrialised countries to protect sensitive sectors of their

economies through:

1)

11)

GATT-legitimate safeguard action (temporary tariff or quota protection

compensated by counter-concessions to those primarily affected): or

"grey area" measures of doubtful GATT legitimacy usually taking the

form of voluntary restraint arrangements (vràs) limiting supplies of

particular products to individual markets for a defined period.

Japan:

8

The problem with Japan lies not so much in a failure to respect GATT disciplines

as in a very low propensity to import. This leads to distinctly one-sided Japanese

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