Tropical and diversification products: strategic options for developing countries

This paper aims to provide strategic options for developing countries regarding the liberalisation of tropical products. It considers options for the Latin American countries seeking &ldquo;fullest liberalisation of trade in tropical and diversification products&rdquo; under the World Trade Organization (WTO),&nbsp;but also takes into account the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries that have expressed concerns that a multilateral elimination of tariffs might result in the loss of their preferential access to the markets of developed countries. <br /><br />The paper is divided into six sections covering: the importance of tropical products to developing countries and the obstacles they face on the international market the background of trade negotiations that have been conducted in the GATT and the WTO up until September 2007 &ndash; summarising the positions adopted by the main actors an outline of the guidelines for a methodology for developing countries to identify the tropical and diversification products whose trade liberalisation is of major interest for national development. a discussion of the treatment that these products could have in the Doha Round, the desirable results of the negotiations (if the purpose is to achieve full trade liberalisation of these goods), the modalities that the deliberations may adopt and the support that developing countries that may be affected by the liberalisation should receive an exploration of the possible means to achieve an agreement to benefit most of the developing countries &ndash; both those that promote full trade liberalisation of tropical and alternative products and their semi-processed and processed goods, and those concerned about the potential impact of such liberalisation on their economies. The paper concludes that trade liberalisation in tropical and diversification products would benefit <br />an important number of developing countries, without significantly affecting any of them negatively. <br />For those products that are conflictive (especially sugar and banana) it would be important to <br />establish special groups that include major stakeholders in order to reach a compromise solution <br />which should combine both trade and non-trade measures. <br /><br /><br />