Developing and Least-Developed Countries and Mega-Regional Trade and Investment Agreements

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Pacific Island Forum Countries: Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

SADC: Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

EAC: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzanian.

COMESA: Burundi, the Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

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It worth saying that prior to the Enabling Clause of 1979, developing countries have justified the formation of regional trade agreements among them on the basis of Part IV of GATT. In Part IV of GATT, the developing countries members including the ACP Group supported the provision of Article XXXVII:4 which provides for less-developed contracting parties “to take appropriate action in the implementation of PART IV for the benefit of trade of other less-developed contracting parties, in so far as such action is consistent with their individual present and future development, financial and trade needs taking into account past development as well as the trade interests of the less-developed contracting parties as whole”. This Article gave developing countries the legal grounds to form preferential trade agreements among themselves, such as the Global System of Trade Preferences (GSTP) outside the GATT framework. However, under the rules of the Decision of 28th November 1978 (L4903) (Enabling Clause) this subject to notification to the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD), The Council on Trade in Goods and the Council on Trade in Services.

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Manrique Gil M, Lerch M and Bierbrauer E (2015) The TTIP’s potential impact on developing countries: A review of existing literature and selected issues. Directorate – General for External Polices, Policy Department, European Parliament, DG EXPO/B/PolDep/Note/2015_84.

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