Home> Prosperity> Goal 10: Reduced inequalities> Target 10.a: Differential treatment for trade

Target 10.a: Differential treatment for trade

Implement the principle of special and differential treatment for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, in accordance with World Trade Organization agreements.

This target is very closely related to Goal 17 target 12 and the objective to improve market access conditions to LDCsThis category was officially established in 1971 by the United Nations General Assembly with a view to attracting special international support for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged members of the United Nations family. Their low level of socioeconomic development is characterized by weak human and institutional capacities, low and unequally distributed income and scarcity of domestic financial resources.
more exports by giving special and differential treatment to LDCs in accordance with the WTO agreements.

The indicator selected by the Inter-agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDG) for this target is the Proportion of tariff lines applied to imports from least developed countries and developing countries with zero tariff.

Table 10.1 presents the percentage of duty-free tariff lines applicable to LDC exports in selected countries.

Commerce is the life blood of a free society. We must see to it that the arteries which carry that blood stream are not clogged again, as they have been in the past, by artificial barriers created through senseless economic rivalries.President Franklin D. Roosevelt10.26

Table 10.1. Duty-free tariff lines applicable to LDC exports in selected markets, 2013 (Percentage of total number of tariff lines) Download data

Selected developed countries and regions
Australia	100
Switzerland	100
EU28	99
Japan	98
United States	83
Selected developing countries
China	62
India	82

Source: UNCTAD (2016).

Almost all developed countries already apply duty-free tariff lines to LDC exports. The main exception is the United States, where more than 15 per cent of tariff lines have a non-zero rate that is applied to LDC exports.

The tariffs facing LDC exports are zero or close to zero in the majority of developed countries and a number of important developing countries that are major markets for LDC exports.

Information on duty-free tariff lines can be usefully supplemented with information on the average tariffs facing LDC exports to assess the implementation of duty-free quota-free market access (see target 17.12).