ABSTRACT
Tariffs on goods of export interest to developing countries continue to be comparatively high. Attention has focused on a generalised scheme of tariff preferences for the manufactured and semi-manufactured exports of developing countries to the markets of the industrialised world. Although a preference system would offer much to developing countries, it would also call for great concessions from developed countries. There is one other criterion by which the various optional negotiating techniques should be assessed and that relates to how they might counter the protectionist pressures which tend to develop when the pressures for liberalisation are relaxed. One of the main attractions of the free trade treaty option is that it would provide a dramatic and effective counter to protectionism. The integration of the world economy has reached the stage when free trade can be considered an attainable as well as a desirable objective for the governments of developed countries.
