The WTO dispute settlement understanding as a tool for eliminating market access barriers for Nigeria's agricultural exports

Field: Economics, Econometrics and Finance (Social Sciences)

This research examines the DSU as a tool for reducing or eliminating market access barriers for Nigeria’s Agricultural exports. Participation in the DSU is key to shaping trade jurisprudence that guide and determine trade agreements and negotiations. Consequently, this research examines the degree to which Nigeria has engaged with this instrument to ensure that agreements reached by the WTO –both by the General Council and Appellate Body- do not hamper its trade interests. It is necessary to note that African countries were in support of the rule-based approach of the DSU at the time of its inception –mainly because of what they saw as a perceived advantage emanating from SDT provisions- without much thought to the challenges they would face in the future. While the rule-based approach was welcomed and formalized by member countries at The Uruguay Round, few of them –particularly African countries- could have anticipated the increased complexity of this instrument with the nature and frequency of cases filed over the years since the DSU’s inception in 1995. This and other challenges associated with the DSU also informed this research especially as African countries including Nigeria show suboptimal results with respect to engaging with and participating in DSU processes. The agency theory is used to explore Nigeria’s trade infrastructure to identify the peculiar barriers inhibiting its engagement with the WTO’s dispute settlement system. In applying this framework to the study, the researcher was able to broadly categorize stakeholders in Nigeria’s trade environment into three main groups namely: the upstream players; the midstream players and the downstream players. The downstream consists of Nigeria’s WTO representative based in Geneva; the midstream consists of trade-related or trade support institutions in Nigeria (i.e. the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade & Investment (FMITI); the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC); the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD); and the upstream players consists of producers and exporters of agricultural commodities. The framework also influenced data collection and analysis for the study. For this research, the case study research design was used. Nigeria formed the case study for investigating developing countries’ engagement with the WTO’s Dispute Settlement System. Since Nigeria was selected as a case study for this research, questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data from key actors and stakeholders across the upstream (exporters and producers of shea nuts, sesame and cocoa), midstream (trade-related or trade support institutions such as the FMITI and NEPC), and downstream (i.e. Nigeria’s WTO trade representative based in Geneva) layers of the trade environment in Nigeria. Overall, the study concluded that the upstream actors are unable to identify market access barriers given their low participation in export and limited understanding andapplication of WTO rules (i.e. SPS and TBT). Furthermore, the midstream lacks the capacity to investigate identified market access barriers, gather data and communicate to the upstream for further actions. The downstream level faces both internal and external factors preventing them from initiating cases on behalf of the upstream actors. This confirms the study’s main hypothesis which states that the Nigerian trade architecture issubdivided into three distinct segments namely downstream, midstream, and upstream. Effective engagement with the WTO dispute settlement process relies on strengthening the capacity of these three segments to carry out their respective responsibilities in the trade process.