Recent scholarship raises a number of questions about how countries at different income levels use the World Trade Organization's (WTO's) Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU). It is generally accepted that countries with large trade volumes will use the DSU more than smaller economies. It stands to reason that developed countries would also be faster to participate in dispute settlement processes after acceding to the WTO Agreement. This article shows that economic development status does not explain the speed at which members engage in dispute settlement following accession. In fact, there is less uniformity in the pace at which members undertake dispute settlement than might be expected given the global divisions of wealth, access to information and availability of legal talent.
Journal of World Trade