Positive measures should therefore be adopted to facilitate their participation through, for instance, the reworking of special and differential treatment provisions in the agreements. LDC Governments need to become better at identifying their interests in the multilateral trading system. Remaining outside increasingly means they are missing out on opportunities. However, accession should not be viewed as an end in itself, but rather as a key element in the pursuit of national development policy objectives. Taking part in a rules-based trading system poses two specific types of problems for LDCs, problems stemming essentially from their weak domestic institutions and limited human and financial resources.
Implementation is frequently resource-intensive.
For example, there are approximately 215 notification requirements for WTO members, posing a serious administrative burden. Similar institutional challenges are posed by the need to enact new legislation or eliminate inconsistent legislation, or to set up new domestic institutions so as to comply with WTO obligations. These should be sectors in which each country has some existing or potential comparative advantage. Noting that LDCs are already over-extended in coping with their existing WTO obligations, the Report signals the importance for them of the upcoming negotiations in agriculture and services. High economic stakes are involved in the agriculture negotiations, in particular, as this sector accounts for about 40 per cent of LDCs' total output.