Why do member countries choose not to participate in the World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body?

摘要

This study examines non-participatory membership in the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body.It uses an extensive form game that models trade and dispute settlement,costs for litigation,and prisoner's dilemma-like payoffs.The study finds that,with the same litigation costs,there is a pure subgame perfect Nash equilibrium where both states will engage in protectionism and avoid filing.If one state has a higher litigation cost,it can be locked out of recourse and be worse off than it would be ex ante.These results,however,do not capture third-party litigation; neither do they examine the inability to impose countermeasures.