Since the Uruguay Round, the areas of progress were in telecoms, information technology and financial services. They are sectors of interest to developed countries. There must be progress in market access for the South, in textiles, clothing, agriculture, tariff peaks and escalation. In relation to norms, developing countries need more flexibility in the choice of their development policies. Many policies used by developed countries in the past for centuries are either out of reach of developing countries due to their being prohibited in the past Round, or there is an attempt to outlaw these policies.
Development is a complex process.
We can't expect all 150 countries to replicate Singapore. In an earlier session, India's Foreign Affairs Secretary S T Devare said the last decade had shown that globalisation, unless it is managed well and is at the right pace, disrupts economic progress. Exports from developing countries continue to face tariff and non-tariff barriers. In textiles and clothing, quantitative restrictions and lack of any meaningful integration continue to constrain exports to major developed countries. Other exports have been neutralised through mechanisms like antidumping measures, sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures and technical barriers to trade.