ABSTRACT
The prenegotiation history of the Uruguay Round (UR) is ample testimony to the reluctance of some major developing countries to enter into another round of multilateral trade negotiations, let alone expand its mandate into new areas. The effects of the UR agreement on new issues such as services, trade-related investment measures, and trade-related intellectual property rights, as well as the strengthening of the dispute-settlement mechanism (DSM) are of course impossible to quantify. The provisions in the UR agreement that make available the services of the World Trade Organization secretariat, if needed, to enable the developing countries to avail themselves of the DSM are to be welcomed. More important, as happened in the past in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, power realities will continue to limit the extent of relief that a weak, developing country can obtain in its dispute against a powerful, industrialized country.
