Challenges faced by the world trade organization in the principle of preferential treatment

Abstract EN

In recent years, the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most important phenomena in the field of international relations.

Due to the vast and subjective geographical scope of the organization, the legal system governing this organization also has special features.

One of the important features of the World Trade Organization legal system is the establishment of specific rules for two groups of the developing and least developed countries (LDC), considering the special economic and social status of these two groups of states.

Although a preferential approach was adopted towards the under developed countries in the framework of the GATT 1974, with the establishment of the World Trade Organization, this approach was significantly institutionalized (1).

That is because two-thirds of the 164 member states of WHO until 2016 were in the developing and least developed countries and considering the needs of these countries is one of the most important issues of this organization (2).

Therefore, in the present article, through descriptive-analytic method, after examining the concepts of the principle of preferential treatment, the existing challenges and GATT 1947 and WTO 1995 approaches on this principle are investigated and the theories of the scholars and experts are analyzed.