Problems with Specific Rules:

There are several rules in  the system that operate against the development process in the developing countries, at least in the short term. It is relevant to enumerate and explain some of  the important ones. The  principle of national treatment  in the WTO,  i.e.,  non-discrimination between an imported product and a  like domestic product prohibits a country to give preferential treatment to a domestic product  in comparison  to an  imported product. For the developing countries, such a prohibition may be a handicap in their process of development. It constrains their efforts  to encourage the use of a domestic product and thus Inhibits  them in encouraging domestic production. When the domestic product has to face strength of  the producer and exporter of a developed country,  the  fonner naturally suffers a great disadvantage and handicap. The prohibition imposed by  the national-treatment  provisibn  has the potential  of  hindering the industrialisation process in the developing countries. A new product  that  is only beginning  to  be  produced  in a developing country requires special treatment and facilities; but this provision of the WTO does not pennit it.

The WTO rules prohibit  the countries fiom stipulating  "domestic  content requirement",  i.e.,  laying down the condition that at least some minimum portion of  the  raw materials and industrial intermediates  used by a  factory  must be obtained fiom domestic sources. In this way, an opportunity to encourage consumption of domestic products is lost. Also it may result in an avoidable outgo of scarce foreign exchange that is spent in importing the materials that could have been very well sourced domestically.

The WTO rules also prohibit "foreign exchange balancing",  i.e., laying down the  condition that a finn must export a part of its products  to balanke  the outgoing foreign  exchange  spent  on  the purchase of the raw materials, industrial  intermediates, technology, consultancy services  etc. Then bringing agriculture within the folds of WTO disciplines is very much anomalous considering the position of agriculture  in the developing countries. The WTO rules on agricalture.ire  based on the principle  that treats agriculture as  a  commercial  operation,  as is the case with  industrial products. This approach  is basically flawed in respect of  the developing countries.  In most of the developing  countries, agriculture  is generally  not a commercial operation. Farmers take to it because the land has been with,their  family for generations and they have no other profession as an alternative. Agriculture is  thus not an exercise in maximising profit, but a means of sustenance  for the family. For this  reason,  it  is  not quite rational  to envelop it within the principles of commercial operation and international competition, as  is  the case  by its  being covered by WTO disciplines.