RTAs versus the WTO in the dispute settlement: Latin American experience

Russia - 11 October 2017

Trade topics: Trade Dispute Settlement Systems

The article analyses the experience of Latin American countries (LAC) with regards to their participation in various economic dispute settlement mechanisms. Despite the existence of multilateral bodies and rules for dispute resolution, countries creating regional trade blocs usually try to develop their own dispute settlement systems for the defense of national economic interests. Latin America and the Caribbean are not an exception. The Andean Community, CACM, CARICOM, MERCOSUR, and NAFTA all have more or less comprehensive dispute settlement bodies. One could expect that these bodies would be used for “internal” disputes and that the multilateral framework would serve to deal with “outsiders”. However, the WTO dispute settlement system is very important for solving both disputes with countries that are not members of the blocs and “internal” ones.

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