Description
One
of the most notable achievements of the multilateral trading system
is the establishment of a dispute settlement mechanism. It is
unique in that it seeks to enforce in an economically and politically
meaningful way rulings sufficient to compel a violating party
to reform its act or omission. The WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding
(DSU) seeks to ensure an improved prospect of compliance, given
its provisions on compensation and retaliation, and thus constitutes
a central element in providing security and predictability to
the multilateral trade system.
In
order for a country to maximize its trade potential under the
multilateral trade system, it must be able to defend its trade
rights if needed. The necessary skills to enable such performance
have been cultivated in most developed countries but the same
unfortunately does not apply in many developing countries. Egypt
has built up a strong private sector and a responsive public administrative
system and possesses many of the necessary devices to fully utilize
the trading system. Nevertheless, Egypt has been formally challenged
at the WTO on four occasions but is yet to initiate a complaint
against a trade partner, albeit a number of trade barriers have
already been identified. For Egypt to change this pattern it is
crucial that the private sector is deeply involved in Egypt's
foreign trade policy discussions; helps strengthen Egypt's public-private
partnerships; and works unified with the government to achieve
Egypt's international trade objectives, including by utilizing
the WTO dispute settlement system.
If
Egypt is to advance its trade objectives over the coming years
and not merely respond to increasingly aggressive attacks from
strong trade partners, the private sector, as the direct beneficiaries
of WTO law and rights must boost its understanding of the multilateral
trade system and engage directly in close cooperation with the
government.
As
a contribution to this debate, Amcham and ICTSD are bringing together
experts from Egypt and Geneva to discuss and reflect on why the
WTO dispute settlement is a strategic instrument that the Egyptian
private sector should exploit, and how to strengthen public-private
partnerships for Egypt to maximize its international trade potential.
The national dialogue provides a platform for the private sector
to engage in discussions with WTO experts; strengthen its knowledge
and understanding of WTO law and options; share experiences; and
identify possible strategies that could facilitate a more effective
engagement of the system where the need arises. The dialogue will
be conducted as an open informal process with encouraged frank
discussions following each of the presentations.
In
2006, ICTSD launched a series of regional dialogues with the overarching
objective to explore strategies to enhance the participation of
developing countries in the WTO dispute settlement system where
the need arises. The
first of these dialogues, for Asia,
was held in Indonesia in January
2006, the second, for South
America, was convened in Brazil in June 2006, and the third,
for Africa, took
place in Kenya in November 2006.
