In the Agreement Establishing the WTO, it is recognized that “there is need for positive efforts designed to ensure that developing countries, and especially the least developed among them, secure a share in the growth in international trade commensurate with the needs of their economic development”
Over the years, trade openness has contributed considerably to enhancing developing countries’ participation in the global economy. Figure 1 shows that from 1990 to 2008, the volume of exports from developing countries grew consistently faster than exports from developed countries or the world as a whole, as did the share of developing countries’ exports in the value of total world exports. For example, between 2000 and 2008 the volume of developing countries’ exports almost doubled, while world exports increased by only 50 per cent