Developing countries in a changing international order: coalitions and dispute settlement at the WTO

This article analyzes developing countries performance at the World Trade Organization (WTO) accordingly to two aspects: developing country coalitions and developing country participation in the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB). The authors conclude that developing countries use institutional mechanisms as their main strategy in order to increase their capacity relatively to developed countries. Thus, developing countries have worked within the existing trade structure in order to try to adapt it to their interests. Developing countries have managed to create and maintain coalitions at the WTO, despite their economic and political diversity. As regards their participation in the DSB, although the number of panels opened by developing countries has increased, it is still concentrated in a small group of developing countries, mainly Brazil and India.