Saudi Arabia’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2005 followed one of the most extensive negotiation processes for a recently acceded member, resulting in a wide range of WTO-plus commitments set out in the Protocol of Accession (WT/L/627) and the Working Party Report (WT/ACC/SAU/61). This article provides the first systematic, doctrine-based assessment of the Kingdom’s behaviour within the confines of WTO law since joining the multilateral trading system. It examines the full spectrum of accession obligations – including trading rights, transparency requirements, Trade-Related Investment Measures elimination, sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS)/technical barriers to trade (TBT) procedures, services commitments, and disciplines governing state-owned enterprises (SOEs) – and evaluates how these obligations have been internalized in practice. The analysis further reviews Saudi Arabia’s participation in WTO dispute settlement as complainant, respondent, and third party, with particular attention to DS567 as the primary instance involving an accession-related violation. The implementation record is assessed against the standards set out in Dispute Settlement Understanding Articles 21 and 22, together with evidence from Trade Policy Reviews (TPRs). Applying benchmarks derived from non-discrimination, transparency, exceptions jurisprudence, and implementation discipline, the article finds that Saudi Arabia has generally maintained a stable compliance profile, with notable strengths in tariff observance, publication of measures, and administrative modernization, alongside areas requiring continued scrutiny such as SOE transparency and certain localization practices. The study contributes to an underdeveloped literature by offering a strictly WTO-focused evaluation anchored exclusively in primary multilateral legal sources.
Journal of World Trade