The importance of trade to countries is two-fold: one, it provides a country with income; and two, it directly provides a country's citizens with income as well. In a sense, facilitating access to markets is the best form of direct investment a country can undertake towards its socio-economic development.

Throughout this work, we have emphasised that trade is instrumental to a people's socio-economic development. We started first with a review of trade and development at the WTO. The emphasis was on understanding the exact nature of the Organisation in order to provide a preliminary foundation for future consideration of what the WTO can and cannot do for its developing country Members. When we examined the classifications by international organisations on development status, it was clear that the international community through these various organisations understands that the principal element of ‘developing country’ status is the level of poverty and the limited capacity for individual growth and opportunity. These are elements which motivated the world trading system even from the time of the GATT, to lay out provisions in the international trade rules to address the challenges of developing country participation in organised global trade.

Developing country integration however has faced and still continues to face teething problems. Apart from the general barriers experienced across the global market which a uniform rules-based system was expected to resolve, developing countries’ circumstances have not been improved in the face of challenges like the inequalities in trading power, internal constraints, an everexpanding body of rules, and the single undertaking requirement which demands commitment to every single WTO rule irrespective of the capacity to execute the obligations therein. In addition, we also argued that the application of the comparative advantage theory to the modern market is more of a constraint than a true reading of the political economy of the times. Current action under the Doha Development Agenda in spite of the renewed activity at the WTO Secretariat which carries out administrative functions even in the provision of technical assistance is not moving as swiftly as it should especially with the protraction of the Doha Round.