This paper explores how special provisions for developing countries in the multilateral
trading system have continued to evolve over time. An appreciation of the evolution of
provisions designed specifically for developing countries in the multilateral trading system, as
Alexander Keck and Patrick Low rightly put it, provides a valuable insight in considering the
issue of development in WTO today especially Special and Differential Treatment (S&D).

The desire to make the world trading system more supportive of development started as part
of the efforts to reconstruct the world in post Second World War era. After the Second
World War, the United States and Great Britain began negotiations about the future of the
post-war international economy. First, international financial institutions (for reconstruction)
were to be in place, hence the Bretton Wood Conference, which created the World Bank
and the International Monetary Fund. Initiatives, especially by the United States and Great
Britain were motivated by the desire to have a stable world economy that would provide all
trading nations with nondiscriminatory access to markets, supplies and investment
opportunities. It was assumed at the time that trade was the route to achieving peace, and
that nondiscrimination would improve foreign relations.