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.

The News and Events category publishes the latest News and Events relating to International Economic Law relating to Africa and the Global South. Every week, Afronomicslaw.org receive the News and Events in their e-mail accounts. The News and Events published every week include conferences, major developments in the field of International Economic Law in Africa at the national, sub-regional and regional levels as well as relevant case law. News and Events with a Global South focus are also often included.

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.

The workshop aims to promote exchange among scholars working on these and related questions, stimulate in-depth discussions, and offer input to ongoing research. We are especially interested in contributions with novel empirical insights. Overall, the workshop’s ambition is to contribute to the advancement of knowledge on the geopoliticization of trade.

As part of the preparatory activities for the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), to be held in Sevilla, Spain, from 30 June to 3 July 2025, we invite think tanks, universities, research networks and other relevant academic stakeholders to submit proposals for panels to be presented during an Academic Day on Monday 2 December 2024 at UN Headquarters in New York.

The News and Events category publishes the latest News and Events relating to International Economic Law relating to Africa and the Global South. Every week, Afronomicslaw.org receive the News and Events in their e-mail accounts. The News and Events published every week include conferences, major developments in the field of International Economic Law in Africa at the national, sub-regional and regional levels as well as relevant case law. News and Events with a Global South focus are also often included.

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 African Sovereign Debt Justice Network, (AfSDJN), is a coalition of citizens, scholars, civil society actors and church groups committed to exposing the adverse impact of unsustainable levels of African sovereign debt on the lives of ordinary citizens. Convened by Afronomicslaw.org with the support of Open Society for Southern Africa, (OSISA), the AfSDJN's activities are tailored around addressing the threats that sovereign debt poses for economic development, social cohesion and human rights in Africa. It advocates for debt cancellation, rescheduling and restructuring as well as increasing the accountability and responsibility of lenders and African governments about how sovereign debt is procured, spent and repaid.

The News and Events category publishes the latest News and Events relating to International Economic Law relating to Africa and the Global South. Every week, Afronomicslaw.org receive the News and Events in their e-mail accounts. The News and Events published every week include conferences, major developments in the field of International Economic Law in Africa at the national, sub-regional and regional levels as well as relevant case law. News and Events with a Global South focus are also often included.