ABSTRACT
Are unilateral preferential market access arrangements set up by the United States for developing country exports to the US market a ‘gift’ to developing countries? If so, does it justify the imposition of conditions, in particular conditions which are considered to ‘reflect American values’? What are ‘American values’? Does the United States have the moral authority to impose the conditions it sets for preferential market access to it? Are the conditions it sets for developing countries adhered to by the US itself? Are there other considerations, for example US economic interests, which the US allows to trump the conditions it normally insists that the developing countries should adhere to, for example child labour? Are the conditions it imposes morally justifiable? To what extent do the conditions benefit developing countries and the US? Are there principles of international law and policy including WTO law relevant to the analysis of US unilateral preferential arrangements? This chapter brings to bear such an analysis to the conditions set in the US Generalized System of Preferences, including related preferences.
