African Actvism in the World Trade Organisation (2007 - 12)

Researchers: Professor Donna Lee (d.lee.3@bham.ac.uk); Antoinette Valsamakis (antoinette@spitfireuk.net); Collin Zhuawu (cxz570@bham.ac.uk) Hisham Sabbagh and Isabel de Quieroz

In the World Trade Organisation (WTO) African member states have come to play an increasingly active part such that African activism has been a contributory factor in the continuing impasse preventing the completion of the current Doha Round (2001 to date).  

Through the formation of strategic coalitions as the Africa Group, as well as active participation in other bargaining alliances such as the NAMA 11, G20 and others, African states have become key to the process and form of WTO negotiations. The research seeks to identify and critically analyse the bargaining strategies of African states in the negotiating processes during the current Doha Round. 

There is a paucity of work on Africa’s involvement in international organisations generally  and, comprehensive study of Africa in the WTO. Yet a thorough study of African involvement in the WTO provides an opportunity to explain more fully weak country behaviour in trade negotiations and, significantly, their impact on institutional change. The research on multilateral trade bargaining examines the constraints and opportunities for African agency in the WTO and provides a policy-relevant setting for further social science analysis of structure-agency relations and their impact on institutional change. By analysing the significance of the African members states as potential vehicle for shifts in the negotiation process, this study offers a much-needed explanation for WTO institutional change.

Project aims

The project aims to gather, document and analyse new qualitative data on the WTO negotiating process and Africa's involvement in this process during the Doha Round through interviews with African and non-African member delegates, WTO officials, and think tank, legal, and non-governmental organisation staff working on WTO-related issues in Geneva and Africa , as well as through examination of official and government documentation. This new data will be used to achieve the following five specific objectives:

Specific Objective 1 (SO1) – produce new practical, policy-relevant knowledge of the negotiating process in the WTO and the bargaining strategies of African member states during the Doha Round in the form of a qualitative data set, briefing notes and meetings for all those involved in this process and for the business community with trade interests in Africa. The research will highlight how the current WTO negotiating process works, what constraints and opportunities exist for weaker countries to influence the process, and which trade issues African countries prioritise and are able to have greater influence over and why.

Specific Objective 2 (SO2) - provide the first comprehensive analysis of African members states (including the Africa Group and other strategic alliances) in the Doha Round negotiations in the form of articles and conference papers and a monograph within a year of the end of the project. The project will provide an empirically rich case study of the nature and impact of the bargaining strategies of less powerful actors in the WTO in order to explore the broader social science issue of the extent to / ways in which the weak negotiate with the strong. The data from the case study will be used to highlight and analyse how African members prioritise and negotiate their trade interests with more powerful actors such as the United States, China, India, Brazil and EU.

Specific Objective 3 (SO3) - develop an  analytical framework using a critical realist approach to  study the WTO Doha Round talks, based on qualitative research that will be applicable to further social science enquiry on negotiations. The analytical framework will explore the Doha Round negotiations, focusing upon the constraints on, and opportunities for, African (agency) influence in the WTO negotiation process (structure) and in so doing provide an innovative policy-relevant setting for further analysis of structure-agency relations in the international system, especially in relation to institutional change.

Specific Objective 4 (SO4) - contribute to the planning and development of skills training for African and other officials involved in multilateral trade negotiations by feeding back the research findings on the effectiveness of African bargaining strategies in the Doha Round negotiations via interactive briefing sessions, dialogues and briefing notes.

Specific Objective 5 (SO5) - contribute to current policy debates within the WTO, EU Commission, and the Commonwealth Secretariat on the impact of small / weak states in multilateral negotiations in the form of briefing notes and a symposium delivered to these organisations.

Research outputs

The following is a selection of the work-in-progress papers and published work that have been produced as a result of the research so far:

  • Publications / Work-in-progress:

Lee, D ‘Global Trade Governance and the challenges of African activism in the Doha Development Agenda negotiations’, Global Society  (forthcoming 1011/12)

Lee, D  and Smith, N (2010) ‘Small State Discourses in the International Political Economy’ Third World Quarterly, Vol 31, No.7, pp 1091-1105.

Donna Lee ‘Bringing an Elephant into the Room’: African Diplomacy in the Doha Development Agenda Negotiations’ in A Cooper and T Shaw (eds) Small State Diplomacies (Palgrave, April 2009).

Donna Lee & Nicki Smith ‘The Political Economy of Small African States in the WTO’ The Round Table, Vol 97, No. 395,  April 2008, pp. 259-271.

Donna Lee & Rorden Wilkinson (eds.) The WTO After Hong Kong: Progress in, and Prospects for, the Doha Development Agenda  (Routledge, 2007).

Donna Lee ‘The Cotton Club: Africa in the WTO’, in Donna Lee & Rorden Wilkinson (eds.) The WTO After Hong Kong, Routledge, 2007.

Donna Lee ‘South Africa in the WTO’, in Donna Lee, Ian Taylor & Paul Williams (eds.) The New Multilateralism in South African Diplomacy, Palgrave. 2006

  • Paper Presentations

Donna Lee ‘African Activism in the Doha Development Agenda  negotiations’, Leicester University,  March 2011

Donna Lee ‘Global Trade Governance and African Activism in the Doha negotiations’, University of the West of England, March 2011

Donna Lee ‘African Activism in the WTO’ Chatham House Africa Programme, October 2009.

Donna Lee ‘African States and WTO Decision-Making’, World Trade Institute, Berne, September 2009

Donna Lee & Nicki Smith, ‘The Political Economy of Small African States in the WTO’ . International Studies Association Annual Conference. San Francisco, March 2008.

Donna Lee ‘African Diplomacy in the WTO’, University of West Indies, February, 2008.

Colin Zhuawu ‘Engaging Africa in the changing International Political Economy’  University of Birmingham Conference on Interdisciplinary in International Relations, Birmingham , September 2009.

Antoinette Valsamakis ‘Engaging with the world: Corporate South Africa and the rise of non-OECD multinationals in global economic governance’, British International Studies Association, Cambridge, December, 2008

Antoinette Valsamakis ‘Conceptualising Corporate South Africa in Global Economic Governance’, International Studies Association, New York, February, 2009.

  • Articles and Chapters

Lee, D (2011/12) ‘Global Trade Governance and the challenges of African activism in the Doha Development Agenda negotiations’, Global Society (forthcoming)

Lee, D  and Smith, N (2010) ‘Small State Discourses in the International Political Economy’ Third World Quarterly, Vol 31, No.7, pp 1091-1105.

Lee, D and Hocking, B (2010)  ‘Economic Diplomacy’ in Robert A. Denemark (ed.) The International Studies Encyclopedia, Vol. II, pp 1216-1227. Wiley Blackwell.

Lee, D and Hocking, B  (2010) ‘Diplomacy’ in Walter Carlsnaes et al (eds.) IPSA Encyclopedia of Political Science (in press).

Lee, D (2009) 'Bringing an Elephant into the Room: African Diplomacy in the Doha Development Agenda Negotiations' in A. Cooper and T. Shaw (eds.) Small State Diplomacies, Palgrave

Lee, D and Smith, N (2008) 'The Political Economy of Small African States in the WTO' The Round Table, Vol 97, No. 395.

Lee, D., and Hocking, H (2007) 'The Diplomacy of Proximity and Specialness: Enhancing Canada's Representation in the United States' Hague Journal of Diplomacy Vol 1. No. 1.