How Important are Market Access Issues for Developing Countries in the Doha Agenda?

The aim of this paper is that of going “back to basics”, focusing on the importance of market access issues for developing countries in the WTO negotiations begun in Doha in 2001. Data on protection patterns in agriculture and manufacturing are analysed, with a special focus on the issues of tariff peaks and escalation. The likely impact of several liberalisation scenarios is evaluated using GTAP. The broad conclusion is that developing countries still have sizable potential gains from improved market access in merchandise trade, but the size and the distribution of these gains depend much on the extent to which developing countries will be active in the liberalization process and on the agreed negotiation targets and modalities.