WTO Dispute Settlement System: Latin American countries behavior in the period 1995-2017

The purpose of this document is to provide a general overview of the participation of Latin American and Caribbean countries in the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM) during the period from 1995-2017. The region as a whole has been an active user of this mechanism, and some Latin American countries are even among the main users at the global level. In fact, the region’s countries frequently prefer the DSM over other alternative forums available when settling commercial disputes. This article is divided into two sections, the first of which analyzes Latin American and Caribbean behavior in terms of the WTO’s DSM, with special emphasis on their participation as complainant, respondent and third parties. The second section is aimed at generating a hypothesis regarding the preference for the WTO’s DSM in comparison to other commercial dispute settlement mechanisms.