A radical change of the socio-cultural order has brought about globalisation processes. Their consequences in the economic sphere include, mainly, growing interdependence, increasing mobility of the production factors and rising efficiency of the global economy. This brings important causes in the political dimension, were the anarchy at the global level translates into erosion of the role of state sovereignty and creation of world economy inefficiencies. Qualitatively new system of global governance, governance at multiple levels and a regulative sub-system emerge, which the World Trade Organisation is a main example of. To reach an effective solution, it is essential to introduce a reform. The central methodological bases are systems theory and neo-liberal internationalism of this analysis.

Magister Legum - LLM / The World Trade Organisation (WTO) deals with regulation of trade in goods, services and intellectual property between participating countries by providing a framework for negotiating trade agreements.1 Furthermore, it has implemented a dispute resolution process aimed at enforcing participants' adherence to WTO agreements. Ideally, all WTO member states have ‘a level playing field’ in terms of access and equal rights under the dispute settlement mechanism. Disputes should be resolved in a fair and impartial manner. However, the WTO’s DSS has been criticised for being undemocratic, non-transparent and accountable to none. 2

The Multifibre Agreement ("MFA") regulated textile trade until 1 January 2005. It was predominantly focused on curtailing textile exports from developing countries, like South Africa and China. With the end of the MFA, a textile crisis occurred in South Africa due to the domination of the domestic market by more affordable Chinese textile products. This case study is applied to illustrate the inadequacy of domestic legislation to provide for the resolution of an international trade dispute that affects an industry. No legislation refers to the resolution of the trade dispute by entering into a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU"), or recourse to the neutral dispute settlement body of the World Trade Organisation ("WTO"). Due to the absence of legislation that directly addresses either forum, all the power is vested• in the government to determine the appropriate course of action. Applications brought by textile industry representative bodies like TEXFED, CLOTRADE and SACTWU were inadequately investigated due to the limited powers of the independent investigative body, ITAC, and were ultimately abandoned. The government entered into a MOU with the Chinese government and in doing so violated international agreements, rights and obligations. An analysis of the inadequacy of the MOU that was entered into and the suitability of the WTO as dispute settlement body is conducted. It is concluded that the current legislation is inadequate in that it doesn't provide for recourse to the WTO and in that it doesn't clearly set out the obligations on government and the independent powers of an independent body. / LLM (Import and Export Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

Resume This thesis aims to evaluate the WTO dispute settlement system that deals with disputes arising between WTO members. It focuses on the final stage of this process, i.e. the compliance process and the judgement enforcement process. The main objective is to answer the question whether the methods of judgement enforcement are effective and successful and assess any shortcomings and offer possible solutions to overcome these shortcomings. The thesis is divided into seven chapters. In the opening passage the role of World Trade Organization is introduced as well as the need for a dispute resolution system and the main principles governing the system. Various WTO bodies involved in the decision-making process are also described in detail. The following three chapters deal with the dispute resolution process and procedure rules provided under the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU). The thesis explores all of the procedural stages of the dispute settlement and also all relevant procedural steps undertaken by the participants. These are not limited to the complainant and to the respondent but also encompass third parties and WTO bodies. The fourth and the fifth chapter of this thesis are dedicated to the compliance process and the judgement enforcement process either by means of compensation or suspension...

The object of this work is first to describe evolution of the World Trade Organisation dispute settlement system, which originates from the dispute settlement system under the international agreement GATT 47. Originally it was the diplomatic system without explicit legal regulation, which changed into developed system based on legal regulation of the World Trade Organisation. Next part of this work consists of the analyse of current system regulated by the Dispute Settlement Understanding. The obligatory consultations remain a part of this system. If the agreement is not reached during the consultations, the two-stage proceeding by the panel of experts and by the Appellate Body takes part. The final part of the proceeding is implementation of the decision. Currently the review of the system is in process and many discussions on this issue takes place under WTO, so far with no conclusion. The last part of this work focuses on Banana case III.

The main goal of this thesis is to describe crucial moments in the development of the WTO organization by focusing on key ministerial conferences and negotiations among influential members of this organization. The main goal is therefore to evaluate results and impacts of these ministerial conferences, to describe newly applied rules of international trade in selected trade areas and changes in the negotiation power among members of newly formed informal groups within the organization structures. The thesis is divided into four chapters, each of which describes a milestone which had a significant importance in the development of the WTO organization. The first chapter, called "The Uruguay round", is mainly focusing on the key initiators and players of the whole round of negotiations, on the results and impacts on further WTO development. The second chapter, called "The third ministerial conference in Seattle", is looking for the causes of the negotiations' failure and first strong disagreements among members which were notable since then. The third chapter , called "The fourth ministerial conference in Doha", is describing the process of the Doha negotiations by focusing on the crucial players, informal groups and on issues of the highest importance to most of the WTO members, i.e. trade in agricultural and nonagricultural products. The fourth chapter, called "The July package 2008", is analyzing the content of the proposed package. Even though the WTO members were able to reach conformity in some trade areas several crucial issues have remained unsolved which led to a collapse of the July negotiations and to a non-closure of the whole Doha round.

<p> <p>&nbsp / </p> </p> <p align="justify">At the heart of this study is the topic of small economies in the Multilateral Trade System (MTS). The study examines the World Trade Organisation&rsquo / s (WTO) legal framework and policy objectives in order to develop a comprehensive definition of small economies as a group of WTO members with specific needs. Particular attention is given to the determination of the specific characteristics of small economies, as well as the issues and constraints they are facing in the MTS. The study explores solutions proposed in order to tackle the constraints to the effective integration of small economies in the MTS, with specific reference to the policy reasoning of small economies. More importantly, the study explores the impact of the size factor, which is certainly not only a burden on the growth and development perspectives of the considered entity, but which may also become an advantage and promotes the trade performance of a small economy. Hypotheses are then made relating to the relevance of the economic and political environments in the determination of a successful (or not) integration, and participation, of a small economy in the MTS. A crucial argument developed is that the differences observed between countries sharing similar characteristics of smallness, vulnerability and remoteness/landlockedness, illustrates the fact that what ultimately matters is the interplay of factors related to the economic and political environments, the effect of which is to promote or constrain (depending on the case) successful integration of the small economy in the MTS.</p>

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<p> <p>&nbsp / </p> </p> <p align="justify">At the heart of this study is the topic of small economies in the Multilateral Trade System (MTS). The study examines the World Trade Organisation&rsquo / s (WTO) legal framework and policy objectives in order to develop a comprehensive definition of small economies as a group of WTO members with specific needs. Particular attention is given to the determination of the specific characteristics of small economies, as well as the issues and constraints they are facing in the MTS. The study explores solutions proposed in order to tackle the constraints to the effective integration of small economies in the MTS, with specific reference to the policy reasoning of small economies. More importantly, the study explores the impact of the size factor, which is certainly not only a burden on the growth and development perspectives of the considered entity, but which may also become an advantage and promotes the trade performance of a small economy. Hypotheses are then made relating to the relevance of the economic and political environments in the determination of a successful (or not) integration, and participation, of a small economy in the MTS. A crucial argument developed is that the differences observed between countries sharing similar characteristics of smallness, vulnerability and remoteness/landlockedness, illustrates the fact that what ultimately matters is the interplay of factors related to the economic and political environments, the effect of which is to promote or constrain (depending on the case) successful integration of the small economy in the MTS.</p>