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The Political Economy of Small African States in the WTO

Lee, Donna, Smith, Nicola J. (2008) The Political Economy of Small African States in the WTO. Round Table: Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, 97 (395). pp. 259-271. ISSN 1474-029X. (doi:10.1080/00358530801962071) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:38108)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00358530801962071

Abstract

Small states have come to play an increasingly active part in multilateral trade negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO) such that small state activism has been a major contributory factor in the continuing delay in concluding the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations. This suggests that small states are no longer bit players and are instead key actors in the WTO. Through the formation of a range of alliances, small developing states have become central to the process and form of multilateral trade negotiations. In this article we highlight this increasing activism of small states through a study of the DDA cotton negotiations. We focus in particular on the activism and in?uence of four small developing African states; Burkina Faso, Benin, Chad and Mali in the negotiations. In order to explore whether size really ‘matters’ in the WTO system, our study demonstrates that while size has some relevance—since it creates unequal deliberative apacities—the major obstacle to e?ective in?uence is the persistence of protectionist policies in the cotton sector and the inability of the WTO to enforce its own liberal trade rules and obligations.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1080/00358530801962071
Additional information: Special Issue: Small States in the International Political Economy
Uncontrolled keywords: small states, World Trade Organisation, Africa, cotton, negotiations, trade diplomacy, agriculture, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Doha Development Agenda, multilateralism
Subjects: J Political Science
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Politics and International Relations
Depositing User: Donna Lee
Date Deposited: 30 Jan 2014 17:47 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:14 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/38108 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Lee, Donna.

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