Analysis

Once again, Africa finds itself trapped in the geopolitical tussle between China and the United States. This time, it is the struggle over Africa’s critical minerals. Beginning in August 2022, President Joe Biden of the United States signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law with the promotion of American investments in clean energy and climate-driven technologies as a primary goal of this law. The IRA’s corollary objective was the promotion of environmental justice in the United States. Therefore, for both energy capitalists and transition economy enthusiasts, this was supposed to be a win-win situation. However, more was unsaid. The IRA’s passage was not only about building American industries and homegrown green technologies. One of its goals was to significantly reduce America’s reliance on China for the supply of critical minerals. Despite the significant steps taken under the IRA to reduce American dependence on China for critical minerals, it is evident that the United States feels the need to do more. Recently, the United States Senate passed the Intergovernmental Critical Minerals Task Force Act (ICMTFA). The expectation is that the ICMTFA would ramp up American efforts to reduce its demand on China and other states the United States labels as adversarial states. Together, a combined reading of the IRA and ICMTFA represents a new frontier of American national security interests styled as clean energy laws and transition policies. These developments take place against a backdrop of a significant demand in critical minerals that will outpace supply in less than two decades from now. These maneuvers also speak to the lesser-explored American experience with China nearly a decade ago in a dispute involving China’s restrictions on the export of rare earth minerals. The United States, together with other states, challenged China’s export quotas at the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The DSB ruled that China’s restrictions violated WTO law.

Rethink Trade is a program of the American Economic Liberties Project (AELP), a nonprofit research and advocacy organization that is a thought leader in the anti-monopoly movement. The Rethink Trade program of AELP was established to intensify analysis and advocacy regarding the myriad ways that today’s trade agreements and policies must be altered to undo decades of corporate capture and to deliver on broad public interests.

From September 16-27, 2024, U.S. and Kenyan negotiators held their eighth negotiating round of the US/Kenya Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership in Washington DC. The trade talks for a stand-alone Free Trade Agreement kicked off under the Trump and Kenyatta administrations following an August 2018 meeting of the two Presidents. The Biden administration relaunched the negotiations in July 2022. At the time, the Biden Administration identified protecting American firms in its new industrial policy of increasing manufacturing to counter China. It also sought access to the Kenyan market for American genetically modified crops and dealing with corruption to ensure transparency in public procurement for American businesses as key objectives. In the meantime, President William Ruto, who was elected as Kenya’s fifth President in August 2022, continued pursuing a trade deal with the U.S. with zeal.

The book focuses on special and differential treatment (SDT) of developing countries in the World Trade Organisation. It is carefully researched, draws on a breadth of literature and legal analysis, and presents an original argument on for reforming the system of differentiation within the World Trade Organization (WTO). What Aniekan Ukpe calls a 'differentiated differentiation' approach seeks to resolve contentious and deadlocked debates about the rights and obligations of developing country members. It is on this original approach that the rich historical, ideational and legal analysis of the early chapters of the book builds. The proposed evidence-based and case-by-case system adds a new perspective to academic debates on differential treatment. It has real potential to contribute to ongoing debates in the WTO on reforming differentiation among its members.

The "Special and Differential Treatment Reform in the WTO" by Aniekan Ukpe offers a thorough exploration of the complexities of trade law within the World Trade Organization (WTO), with a particular emphasis on the concept and reform of Special and Differential Treatment (SDT). Ukpe's work is both timely and relevant, addressing some of the most contentious issues in the multilateral trading system. At its core, the book focuses on the critical theme of reforming SDT provisions and practices within the WTO, offering a detailed examination of the current challenges and shortcomings inherent in these provisions. Ukpe conducts a thorough review of existing reform proposals, critically analysing their effectiveness and identifying gaps that have impeded meaningful progress. A central element of his work is the introduction of a unique, rules-based approach he terms "differentiated differentiation." This method advocates for defining agreement-specific or provision-specific criteria for SDT, ensuring that eligibility is based on objective and measurable factors related to a country’s capacity to implement specific rules, rather than on broad country categorization. The book goes beyond conceptual discussion by demonstrating the practical operationalisation of the approach, using the WTO’s customs valuation agreement as a case study.

Aniekan Ukpe’s book on Special and Differential Treatment (SDT) in the WTO is written at an inflection point in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and many other international organizations – one of increasingly deepening polarization between developed and developing countries and their respective coalitions. One of the central issues in the divide has been the non-fulfilment of developmental objectives set out in respective legal frameworks by international institutions, and the inability to reform. Negotiations on redressing SDT under the WTO have now stretched over 20 years in the Doha Development Round, with no middle-ground reached.

One of the longest running debates at the World Trade Organization (WTO) is how to best account for and address the unique needs of developing countries as they become integrated into the world trading system. This has raised a broad range of questions centering around three key issues— what are the specific needs of developing countries, what flexibilities are required to help members meet their commitments, and what support can be given to build capacity where it is needed most? But underlying these considerations that helped frame individual discussions was always the bigger question of whether the approach to special and differential treatment (SDT) was sufficient to account for the diversity of the organization’s membership.

The book “Special and Differential Treatment reform in the WTO” offers a comprehensive exploration of the conceptual, legal, and practical dimensions of the Special and Differential Treatment (SDT) within the World Trade Organization (WTO). It provides critical insights into how to reform SDT to reflect an appropriate relationship between levels of development and the commitments of members.

The book is a contribution to the debate and literature on reforming SDT in the WTO, particularly, how to define and delimit access to SDT in the WTO. The book interrogates the problem of access to SDT resulting from the lack of a concrete criteria to identify a developing country at the WTO or more aptly, a country with a justifiable need for SDT. It answers the question of how to accommodate different levels of development among WTO members, while ensuring that the costs of multilateralism are shared equitably.

China is the largest developing country with a GDP of USD17.82 trillion, while Africa boasts of a conglomeration of the highest number of developing countries under the largest regional free trade mechanism – the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) – with a collective GDP of USD3.4 trillion. China is Africa’s largest bilateral trade partner. Trade between China and Africa stood at USD282 billion in 2023. China and Africa appreciate the significance of IP rights to fostering bilateral, and intra-regional (Africa), trade. Little wonders, therefore, international cooperation on IP rights forms a key strategy for achieving the objectives of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and the AfCFTA agreement. As the 9th Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which was established in 2000, holds in China from 4-6 September with possible focus on green energy, ICTs and technology development, it is important to examine the continued prominence of IP issues in China-Africa relations.