IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/lawdev/v6y2013i2ps47-66n3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Making WTO Dispute Settlement Work for African Countries: An Evaluation of Current Proposals for Reforming the DSU

Author

Listed:
  • Bartels Lorand

    (Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom)

Abstract

Most African countries are WTO Members, and yet to date none has been a complainant in dispute settlement proceedings. One possible reason is that the WTO enforcement regime is not well suited to smaller complainants whose imports from a larger defendant represent only a small share of that defendant’s total exports. Because retaliation rights must be “equivalent” to damage caused, retaliation may not be sufficient to induce the defendant to comply with its obligations. As a result, there may be a chilling effect on smaller countries commencing trade disputes. This article analyses current proposals within the context of the WTO DSU Review that address this problem. It also compares the WTO enforcement regime to general international law on the proportionality of countermeasures and suggests ways to soften the “equivalence” requirement.

Suggested Citation

  • Bartels Lorand, 2013. "Making WTO Dispute Settlement Work for African Countries: An Evaluation of Current Proposals for Reforming the DSU," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 6(2), pages 47-66, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:lawdev:v:6:y:2013:i:2:p:s47-66:n:3
    DOI: 10.1515/ldr-2013-0020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/ldr-2013-0020
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/ldr-2013-0020?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bruce Wilson, 2007. "Compliance by WTO Members with Adverse WTO Dispute Settlement Rulings: The Record to Date," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 10(2), pages 397-403, June.
    2. Delpeuch, Claire, 2011. "African cotton markets at crossroads : will the price spike turn into a new kick-start ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5847, The World Bank.
    3. Bown,Chad P. & Pauwelyn,Joost (ed.), 2010. "The Law, Economics and Politics of Retaliation in WTO Dispute Settlement," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521119979.
    4. Bernard O'Connor & Margareta Djordjevic, 2005. "Practical Aspects of Monetary Compensation," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(1), pages 127-142, March.
    5. William J. Davey, 2005. "The WTO Dispute Settlement System: The First Ten Years," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(1), pages 17-50, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Forere Malebakeng, 2013. "Revisiting African States Participation in the WTO Dispute Settlement through Intra-Africa RTA Dispute Settlement," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 6(2), pages 155-179, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chad P. Bown & Thomas J. Prusa, 2021. "U.S. Anti-dumping: Much Ado about Zeroing," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Thomas J Prusa (ed.), Economic Effects of Antidumping, chapter 10, pages 195-232, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. Stephan Wittig, 2021. "Transatlantic Trade Dispute: Solution for Airbus-Boeing Under Biden?," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 56(1), pages 23-31, January.
    3. Delpeuch, Claire & Leblois, Antoine, 2014. "The Elusive Quest for Supply Response to Cash-Crop Market Reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Cotton," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 521-537.
    4. Xufang Zhang & Changyou Sun & Jason Gordon & Ian A. Munn, 2020. "Determinants of Temporary Trade Barriers in Global Forest Products Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-13, May.
    5. Balistreri, Edward J. & Mavroidis, Petros C. & Prusa, Thomas J., 2021. "What If? Tinkering with the Counterfactual: A Comment on US–Washing Machines (Article 22.6-US)," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(4), pages 421-435, October.
    6. Bassett, Thomas J., 2014. "Capturing the Margins: World Market Prices and Cotton Farmer Incomes in West Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 408-421.
    7. Peter K. Yu, 2013. "Building IPC4D to promote access to essential medicines," Chapters, in: Obijiofor Aginam & John Harrington & Peter K. Yu (ed.), The Global Governance of HIV/AIDS, chapter 10, pages 200-222, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Barbara Dluhosch & Daniel Horgos, 2013. "(When) Does Tit-for-tat Diplomacy in Trade Policy Pay Off?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 155-179, February.
    9. Aydin B. Yildirim & J. Tyson Chatagnier & Arlo Poletti & Dirk De Bièvre, 2018. "The internationalization of production and the politics of compliance in WTO disputes," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 49-75, March.
    10. Fontagné, Lionel & Guillin, Amélie & Mitaritonna, Cristina, 2010. "Estimations of Tariff Equivalents for the Services Sectors," Conference papers 331941, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    11. Gorbylev, Sergei & Novakovic, Milica, 2013. "Retaliation under the WTO Agreement: The “Sequencing Problem”," Estey Centre Journal of International Law and Trade Policy, Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade, vol. 14(2), pages 1-15.
    12. Kuenzel, David J., 2017. "WTO dispute determinants," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 157-179.
    13. Rike U. Krämer-Hoppe & Tilman Krüger, 2017. "International Adjudication as a Mode of EU External Governance? The WTO Seal Case," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 535-550, May.
    14. Bown,Chad P. & Crowley,Meredith A & Bown,Chad P. & Crowley,Meredith A, 2016. "The empirical landscape of trade policy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7620, The World Bank.
    15. Chad P. Bown & Kara M. Reynolds, 2017. "Trade Agreements and Enforcement: Evidence from WTO Dispute Settlement," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 64-100, November.
    16. Lee, Jiwon & Wittgenstein, Teresa, 2017. "Weak vs. Strong Ties: Explaining Early Settlement in WTO Disputes," ILE Working Paper Series 7, University of Hamburg, Institute of Law and Economics.
    17. Mostafa Beshkar, 2016. "Arbitration and Renegotiation in Trade Agreements," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 32(3), pages 586-619.
    18. Kyle Bagwell & Chad P. Bown & Robert W. Staiger, 2016. "Is the WTO Passé?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(4), pages 1125-1231, December.
    19. Jean Fouré & Houssein Guimbard & Stéphanie Monjon, 2013. "Border Carbon Ajustment in Europe and Trade Retaliation: What would be the Cost for European Union?," Working Papers 2013-34, CEPII research center.
    20. Staiger, Robert & Bagwell, Kyle & Bown, Chad, 2015. "Is the WTO Passé?," CEPR Discussion Papers 10672, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:lawdev:v:6:y:2013:i:2:p:s47-66:n:3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.