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Digital Trade

Afronomicslaw Academic Forum Guest Lecture Series: Community values and their role in shaping digital trade rules for the AfCFTA Digital Protocol

The Academic Forum is an inclusive and accessible forum that brings together undergraduate and graduate students as well as early career researchers from across the world interested in international economic law issues as they relate to Africa and the Global South. Its goals are to encourage and build core research skills in teaching, research, theory, methods and writing; developing content for Afronomicslaw.org and where possible to encourage authors to submit to the African Journal of International Economic Law; holding workshops and masterclasses on core research skills in teaching, research, theory, methods and writing; and organizing annual poster/essay competitions on international economic law issues.

Of fissures and Reforms: Tracing Digital Transformation in Africa

This blog illustrates how excessive trust in and unaccountability of technological systems runs against digital transformation aims and argues that as an uncanny fixation on gains to be realised from technology becomes a mainstay, certain workings of technological development should not be overlooked.

Digitalising Trade Finance under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement: Lessons from the Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records

This piece considers how the Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR) can serve as a model for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Protocol on Digital Trade with respect to Electronic Transferable Record (ETRs).

Safeguarding Sovereignty and Digital Transformation in Africa

This article consider the concept of digital and data sovereignty in Africa. It focuses on how the development of the digital economy can be effectively established in the African context, in light of Africa’s reliance on partnerships with third countries for internet access, and reliance on multinational service providers for access to consumer services with the digital economy.

Digital Trade in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement: Exploring its promises and challenges

This piece argues that digital trade is an essential developmental tool in a fast-paced world. However, to get the full value of digital trade, AfCFTA member-states must embrace the use of digital trade. This may be achieved by strategic design of the AfCFTA Protocol on E-commerce.

Symposium Introduction: The Digitalizing Continent: Challenges and Opportunities of Digital Transformation for Africa

The fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is marked by an intensive digitalisation process. Within the process, digital data (physical information converted into digital) and digital technologies restructure how things are done and values are created. Various initiatives and strategies from the very recent AU Data Policy Framework to the Africa Digital Transformation Strategy (ADTS), the Smart Africa Manifesto and the E-Commerce Protocol of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which is still under discussion, are intended to galvanize such processes. The regulatory disparity, coupled with the path-dependent asymmetric relationship between actors shapes the degree of leverage they might have over the operation and outcome of such connectivity.

Workshop: The Digitalizing Continent - Examining Challenges and Opportunities of Digital Transformation for Africa

This Workshop, hosted by the Competence Center for African Research (CCAR), University of St.Gallen jointly with the Afronomicslaw.org, seeks to examine the ongoing effort towards digital transformation, and particularly E-Commerce.

Call for Papers by WTO Chairs in Africa - AfCFTA: Challenges and Opportunities

The organising committee invites the submission of abstracts (max. 300 words) or full papers (max.5000 words) from researchers and practitioners in the fields of international trade, development, finance and investment. All abstracts should be formatted to facilitate the review process.

How(Not) to Regulate Digital Markets: Lessons from the EU

The EU is often touted as providing an exemplary model for regional integration in the field of competition policy. It has indeed been successful in many ways – integrating diverse markets through strict anti-cartel laws, introducing an effective one-stop-shop merger regime in the 1990s, and tackling dominance steadfastly albeit less prolifically.However, given its experimentalist and ever-evolving nature, the EU competition regime is also bound to sometimes 'get it wrong'. In the author’s view, this statement holds true regarding the digital markets domain that was recently earmarked for regulation in the EU.

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Call for Participation for Training and Research on Digital Trade Regulatory Integration in Africa

Towards the end of 2020, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), through its African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC), launched a training and research initiative on “Digital trade regulatory integration in Africa”, focusing on 11 pilot countries. Based on their background and expertise in the area, researchers from Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia were selected to build two databases, for each of countries of focus, on various measures related to digital services trade regulations and digital trade integration, respectively.