The case for WTO collective action

Mona Paulsen and Dan Ciuriak

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This article considers whether Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) can develop a collective response to a globally welfare-damaging situation that impacts individual Members differentially. We conclude that collective action remains within the letter and spirit of the WTO Agreements. We set out the enabling procedures for collective action in a WTO dispute setting, in particular, the use of the rarely used situation complaint. We were motivated by the United States’ move to redraw its trade relations and break from its international trade commitments through bilateral negotiations in which it holds asymmetric leverage, buttressed by a pre-emptive announced escalation in response to any attempt by counterparties to join in forging a collective response. We conclude that, if undertaken, collective action can raise each Member’s voice into a countervailing choir and, more importantly, it can reinforce the mutual benefits derived from the multilateral trading system. Collective action thus serves a double purpose in engaging domestic concerns and the collective interests of those intending to preserve the multilateral system on which each Member depends.

Keywords: WTO; collective action; dispute settlement; situation complaint; MFN (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F13 F51 F53 K33 K34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2025-11-27
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm
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Published in World Trade Review, 27, November, 2025. ISSN: 1474-7456

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