The WTO as an idea is good for the world. Its success in eliminating trade barriers has created benefit, mainly for developing nations, to be measured in billions of dollars. It's success in eliminating trade barriers is among the more helpful things to happen to the entire world, developing or not.

That being said, there is something about the idea that rampant trade liberalization does not have the least developed countries in mind. If a country has been underdeveloped for years and therefore has no globally competitive industries, it will fare even worse in a globalized world.

The WTO's Special and Differential Treatment provisions have been a well intended way to counter this effect, but they are nowhere near comprehensive enough. The goal of the developing world should be not to cast off the WTO as an unhelpful body, but to draw attention to this problem and recognize that the economics behind many WTO commitments do not have developing nations in mind.

The WTO is good for LDCs particularly because the developing world stands to gain most from an abolition of the protectionist policies of developed nations, but the path towards liberalization is one that must be taken slowly: a lesson that holds doubly true for the world's poorer nations.