The sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (General Assembly, 2015) will aim at, among others, doubling the share of global exports of the least developed countries (LDCs) by 2020.

The agenda also calls for providing duty-free and quota-free (DFQF) market access to LDCs as one of the main pillars of international support for export expansion by LDCs.

DFQF market access is important, but will it be sufficient to double the export share of LDCs? Will it contribute to sustainable development? Considering market access conditions as one of the binding constraints to the export growth of LDCs in the post-2015 development agenda (along with constraints related to infrastructure, energy and transport), UNCTAD suggests that achieving genuine improvement in market access requires a package of actions.