Trends of Trade Disputes During the WTO Regime

Abstract

Patterns and trends of trade disputes reveal vital information about the users of the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Despite WTO has detailed guidelines regarding how the multilateral trade should be practiced by the Member Countries, the DSU is the ultimate Agreement that promises fair justice against unfair trade practices. Analyses of trade disputes show that the developed countries use the Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM) more than the developing or the newly industrialized countries. The rate of participation of the least-developed countries (LDC) in the dispute settlement process is particularly very low. The direction of disputes shows that the disputes are mostly targeted to the developed countries. All categories of countries- i.e. developed, developing, newly industrialized and transitional economies- lodged disputes against the developed countries more frequently compared to the disputes they lodged against other categories of countries. This indicates that developed countries are targeted in the trade disputes. However, the rate of winning disputes for the developed countries is also higher than those of the other categories. This indicates that despite the developed countries are targeted in the disputes, they manage to survive quite successfully.