The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, in line with its vision of economic integration in the region will hold a three day workshop in collaboration with DFID’s Trade Advocacy Fund (TAF) and GIZ on identifying and resolving trade concerns that affect Member States in the context of the WTO legal system.

The Dispute Settlement Workshop which will take place in Dakar, Senegal from the 13-15^th July 2016 also seeks to emphasise the concept of international trade disputes as an important trade policy tool through presentations on the WTO dispute settlement system, paying particular attention to the experiences of developing countries.

Furthermore, this initiative will serve to introduce the Advisory Centre on WTO Law (ACWL), which provides legal support to Developing and Least Developed countries in defending their legal interests in the WTO legal system.

The Commission through this workshop will be provided with the capacity to grant support to Member states in dispute settlement and equip delegates with the know-how in identifying trade barriers in external markets in order to provide support to domestic exporters.

All ECOWAS countries are members of the WTO. So far, four Member States (Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Nigeria) have participated in a few WTO disputes as third parties; however, no ECOWAS Member State been a complainant or respondent in any WTO dispute.

Participants of this workshop will include delegations from ECOWAS, Member states and the Geneva missions of non-Least Developed Countries (LCD) which include Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cape Verde and Nigeria and International trade experts and Trade law experts.