Revisiting the single undertaking

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511996221.018

17 - Revisiting the single undertaking

towards a more balanced approach to WTO negotiations

from Part IV - Making WTO negotiations and decision-making processes fairer

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2011

Miguel Rodríguez Mendoza and

Marie Wilke

Edited by

Carolyn Deere Birkbeck

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Carolyn Deere Birkbeck: Affiliation:
University of Oxford, Global Economic Governance Programme

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Summary

The idea of a ‘single undertaking’ was first introduced as a procedural device in the Punta del Este Declaration, which formally launched the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations in 1986. Since then, the scope, function and impact of the single undertaking have evolved considerably.

While the single undertaking was originally constructed as a mechanism for preventing negotiations from advancing in areas that may be of interest to some countries but not others, by the end of the Uruguay Round it was used to secure the final package deal that enabled the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Later on, with the launch of the Doha Round in 2001, the meaning and role of the single undertaking changed further as it acquired the status of an almost immutable ‘principle’ whereby nothing can be agreed, until everything is agreed.

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: Making Global Trade Governance Work for Development
Perspectives and Priorities from Developing Countries
, pp. 486 - 506

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511996221.018 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2011

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