G77+CHINA AND GLOBAL GOVERNANCE OF TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT

The global governance of trade remains a very contentious issue between the global North and South. Despite the dominant notion that international trade can facilitate economic development, there are concerns that the global North, represented by Euro-American countries have to a certain extent, set the global trade rules in a way that favours their socio-economic development at the expense of the majority of the countries in the global South. The upstart advantage that Europe had in technological advancement provided an impetus for exploration and subsequent conquest of distant lands and peoples. These were done through interrelated events such as the slave trade, imperialism, colonialism and neo-colonialism. The global economic governance architecture that followed the Second World War in forms of rules that governed conduct of trade, finance and investment, was tilted in favour of the advanced countries. It was in the context of resistance to this unequal global economic structure that the G 77+China was formed in June 1964. This article interrogates the role, successes and limitations of this group of countries in shaping the global governance of trade.