Establishing an Effective Trade Litigation Mechanism under the AfCFTA: What Can We Learn from the World Trade Organization?

Juliette Armelle Kouamo

doi:10.25159/2522-3062/15027

Authors

Juliette Armelle Kouamo University of South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25159/2522-3062/15027

Keywords:

AfCFTA DSM, AfCFTA DSP, formal trade litigation, Trade Litigation Deficit, WTO DSU

Abstract

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) seeks to achieve trade integration in Africa through a single market area that will make the participating countries’ economies competitive within the continent and on the global market. The Agreement establishing the AfCFTA, amongst others, provides for a Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM) which is regulated by the Protocol on Rules and Procedures on the Settlement of Disputes (DSP). The DSP was modelled after the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This DSP aims to provide security and predictability to the regional trading system. It is common cause that the DSU of the WTO and those of the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) have not warranted the expected level of participation by African countries thereby giving rise to a trade litigation deficit. The AfCFTA hopes through its DSM to remove the various obstacles preventing such participation. This paper aims to critically navigate through the various factors justifying the low level of participation of African countries in formal trade litigation and make recommendations on how the AfCFTA can build an effective DSM that is accepted and used by all its members. The methodology used here is a qualitative one through which all material relevant to this work is critically scrutinised for possible viable approaches. In the end, the digitalisation of most (if not all) of the DSM’s processes will help effectively tackle the issue of expensive procedures which limit these countries’ use of formal DSM.

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