The Negotiation of Agreements Because WTO agreements including those originally made at GATT often contain ill-defined phrases, interpretation must be fought over in the various committees and panels or negotiated between members. This gives an advantage to those members in the North who have more experience in presenting complex legal arguments and who can afford large teams of legal experts to fight their case. Problems with Representation Because there are so many agreements covering different trade-related fields, there are often eight or more meetings held at the WTO on any one day. Most developing country members of the WTO have only one or two representatives in Geneva. These people not only have to cover all the meeting and committees at the WTO, they also represent their countries at UN bodies in Geneva.
Some countries have no representation whatsoever.
Clearly it would be impossible for most developing countries to have delegates at more than a fraction of these meetings. Dispute Settlement Body Some argue that the dispute settlement process basically a legal process places smaller countries at a disadvantage because they do not have the legal resources or expertise to use the DSB effectively or the economic power to take retaliatory trade measures. It is unclear whether the threat of using the DSB is having any influence on whether or not developing countries comply with the demands of the richer Northern countries. Although developing countries have a numerical superiority at the WTO, they do not currently have any effective mechanism for co-ordinating their approach. Many of their interests are different and this makes it easier for Northern members, particularly the EU and US to dominate the agenda.