Stand-Alone Posts

Gender equality is the cornerstone of sustainable development. It is an important aspect of all social and economic undertakings at a personal, national, and international level. Sustainable development can only be achieved if the unique needs of men and women are addressed systematically. Trade is essential in the development of families, communities, and countries. However, we cannot view development only as an increase in gross domestic product (GDP); it is also measured as an increase in human well-being. This means that trade at all levels affects, and is affected by, human well-being. One of the debates around gender mainstreaming and trade has been whether international trade law can accommodate gender empowerment. Amrita Bahri in her work Women at the Frontline of COVID-19: Can Gender Mainstreaming in Free Trade Agreements Help? notes that FTAs can play an important role in reducing gender inequality; through them, countries can encourage their trade partners to create laws and procedures that can eliminate or reduce the barriers that impede women’s participation in trade. Men and women experience trade differently, mostly due to gender roles determining how both genders access resources, use their time and earn income. Trade liberalization, despite its best intentions, has often perpetuated gender inequalities, with women being on the losing end.

The Research Center for International Legal Studies of National Chengchi University and the Chinese (Taiwan) Society of International Law will hold the 2025 ILA-ASIL Asia-Pacific Research Forum at Howard Civil Service International House in Taipei, Taiwan, ROC. The theme of the Research Forum is “Sustainable International Law.” ​​

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 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.