Q.State any two criticisms commonly made of the WTO by developing countries.

Despite its rules-based, non-discriminatory framework, the WTO system has drawn recurring objections from developing-country members. …

Two commonly voiced criticisms from developing-country members are:

1. Asymmetry in agricultural rules — developed countries have historically been able to maintain substantial domestic agricultural subsidies while developing countries, with far less fiscal capacity, find it harder to protect or support their own farmers to a comparable degree, leading to complaints that the playing field in agriculture is not genuinely level.

2. TRIPS and access to technology/medicines — the intellectual-property protections required under TRIPS can raise the cost of, or restrict access to, patented medicines and technologies that developing countries need for public health and industrial development, a tension that became especially visible during global health crises requiring affordable generic medicines. …

Presenting these criticisms as universally accepted facts rather than as viewpoints developing countries raise within an ongoing policy debate — the WTO's defenders offer counterarguments (e.g., that TRIPS includes flexibilities such as …