The WTO dispute settlement understanding : how can Africa make better use of the system? using Egypt as a case study

Abstract

The Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) established under the World Trade Organisation, is one of the most notable achievements of the multilateral trading system. African countries need to engage more in this emerging system to defend their trade and economic interests, especially in this time of increasing integration in the world trading system. It is submitted that the weak participation of African countries in the DSU can have negative economic and trade implications on Africa, as it minimises the influence these countries could exert on the development of the DSU legal system at this stage of particular importance to the evolution of international trade law in addition to its direct economic and trade costs. All complaints about impediments in the DSU cannot be rightly claimed to be the core reasons for weak African participation in the system, as the system still stand out as a rule-based with equal treatment to Developed and Developing countries. Additionally, the low participation of African countries cannot be justified by the degree of development basis only, as other developing counties have been very successful in this regard and some African countries managed to make use of the system in a very positive way. Moreover, this dissertation states that the effect of other internal constraints that are reported to hinder African participation, such as lack of sufficient financial resources, limited technical expertise and political factors, could be minimised through joint African cooperation, and by developing national strategies to deal with DSU. Egypt is a good example in this regard; despite its limited financial and technical expertise, it managed to gain accumulated experience through its various forms of engaging in the DSU, and consequently managed to defend its trade and economic interests. The establishment of a national organisational framework to deal with the DSU assisted in the preparation of national expertise that is gaining increasing experience. Egypt’s incorporation of national legislations on Anti-Dumping, Investment Protection, Intellectual Property Rights and other WTO agreements definitely supports the Egyptian position in the DSU. African countries are called to work within the African Union and on the national levels to make the best use of the system to serve their developmental goals. National strategies should be formulated regarding WTO dispute settlement engagement. These should include sound legislations and clear rules of engagement between different departments and the private sector to enable African countries to overcome the major constraints currently limiting their participation. African countries can depend partially on the support system offered by organisations like ACWL, UNCTAD and pro bone assistance from international law firms and NGO’s to overcome the financial and lack of experience constraints.