Title: Nothing ventured, nothing gained? A case study of Africa's participation in WTO dispute settlement

Authors: Jumoke Oduwole

Addresses: Stanford Law School, 15 W. Stony End Place, The Woodlands, Texas 77381, USA

Abstract: The thrust of this research centres on the inadequate participation of African countries in the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. Using the US upland cotton dispute initiated by Brazil as a case study, the author investigates four leading West African cotton exporters – Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali – the |Cotton 4|. While Benin and Chad participated in the dispute as third parties, Burkina Faso and Mali were noticeably absent, despite their joint criticism of cotton subsidies in the sectoral initiatives on cotton delivered by the group at two WTO ministerial meetings. The author attempts to ascertain the rationale for African countries| decisions to participate in disputes or to |free ride| within the international trade arena, arguing that the incentives or disincentives affecting these decisions stem from the inability to retaliate against developed countries under the WTO dispute settlement understanding (DSU); financial and technical limitations in accessing the DSU; disproportionately heavy reliance on principal trading relationships; and other socio-political and economic considerations.

Keywords: international trade; World Trade Organization; WTO; dispute settlement understanding; DSU; Africa; USA; United States; upland cotton dispute; Benin; Burkina Faso; Chad; Mali; cotton subsidies; financial limitations; technical limitations; principal trading relationships.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPL.2009.024477

International Journal of Private Law, 2009 Vol.2 No.4, pp.358 - 370

Published online: 06 Apr 2009 *

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