As Susan Schwab shows in the next section, multinational
companies are increasingly hailing from developing
countries, and they have much in common with established
players from advanced countries. She explains why all these
large enterprises have lost interest in the WTO, and what
they want from multilateral trade negotiations to become
re-engaged. The specific needs of small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) are then examined by Beatriz Leycegui
from a developing country perspective, and by Christopher
Logan from the US perspective. They show that, despite
big differences in productivity and living standards, the
What Companies Want from the World Trading System
5
impediments constraining small enterprises across the
world from adequately participating in trade are similar; in a
nutshell, all these impediments have to do with the cost and
complexity of engaging in international trade and the limited
resources to overcome them.