Target 10.a: Special treatment for developing countries in trade
Implement the principle of special and differential treatment for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, in accordance with World Trade Organization agreements
Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
Why shareholder democracy is helpful
Special and differential treatment, the trade rules that give developing countries easier terms and longer deadlines than richer members, is negotiated by WTO member states, but organized business lobbies the same negotiations. The International Chamber of Commerce campaigned, with a business statement signed by 236 organizations, to renew and permanently adopt the WTO moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions at the WTO's 14th ministerial conference in March 2026. IISD documents that customs and import duties make up 10 to 30 percent of total tax revenue in many developing countries, and that the moratorium takes away a tool those governments use to help their own industries get established. This is a documented case of business lobbying bearing directly on how much room developing countries have to set their own policy, though no shareholder votes are documented on it. Corporate conduct is unrelated to the target and business lobbying is a documented contributor on only one adjacent issue, so owners help at the margin.
How this was scoredHelpful
Helpful. Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
No shareholder advocacy found yet
We looked and found nothing that met our standard, which is a source we opened and confirmed. Special and differential treatment is negotiated between WTO member states. No shareholder proposal, investor letter or coalition engagement was located that asks a listed company about its trade-policy lobbying, its position on the WTO moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions, or its International Chamber of Commerce membership. General corporate political-spending and lobbying-disclosure proposals exist but none located addresses trade policy or developing-country policy space.
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.