^#smrgSAHAF The Anatomy of Underdevelopment -

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was part of the 1943 Bretton Woods package agreed among the Allies for frecing post-war world trade from the beggar-my-neighbour policies of the inter-war cars. To the extent that the total volume of world trade has increased over six-fold in the guarter century since 1948, that is at over 8% per year, the Agreement must be judged a success. But asan Indian delegate to GATT once commented, the Agreement opened up a One-Way Street, for the already developed industrial countries to drive up. Tariffs on the movement of industrial goods were reduced, to the advantage of the most technically developed manufacturers; but other forms of protection were retained and in particular agricultural protection and the protection of labour-intensive industries in the developed countries.

The main expansion in trade exchanges has been between the developed countries themselves. The underdeveloped have been largely left outside the main flows of trade. For only a very few of their products are not in competition with the products of the developed countries.