As COVID-19 wreaked havoc on global trade, Martin Cameron (Managing Director of Trade Research Advisory, a spin-out company of the North-West University) and Prof Wilma Viviers (Research professor) in the TRADE (Trade and Development) research entity and holder of the WTO Chair at the North-West University, South Africa hosted the 8th TRADE-DSM User Group Webinar under the auspices of the WTO Chairs programme.
Blockchain technology holds considerable promise to boost women’s participation in international trade. Blockchain’s anonymity and efficiency could enable many women, who otherwise would be constrained by law, custom or high costs, to engage in financial and business transactions. Blockchain can be used to enable women who lack identification documents to undertake transactions that otherwise would require official identification, and to prove their ownership of assets without interventions from male family members.
While recent technological advances have allowed an increase in digital trade, this growth has occurred with a lack of clear and defined rules. This deficiency has become an issue for Latin American countries. With the multilateral trade regime impasse, more complex regional and bilateral agreements have emerged. The formulation of digital trade regulation raises many questions. In this article we deal with the new rules on digital trade in regional trade agreements recently negotiated by Latin American economies.
Can the digital economy help to alleviate the problem of inequality and forge more inclusive growth or will it exacerbate divisions as time goes by, to the detriment of those countries (including South Africa, India and Brazil) that have among the most unequal societies in the world? And what are the implications for trade policy, especially in developing countries?
The newly constituted International Trade and Investment Law Group (of Law Schools Global League - LSGL) presented four work-progress papers at the Research Workshop organised at University of Turin. The theme was: The recent trends in international trade: protection or protectionism? Four work-in-progress papers ar authored by Dr. Johanna Jacobsson (IE, Madrid); Dr. Ru Ding (CUPL, Beijing); Dr. Daria Boklan (HSE, Moscow) and Dr. Amrita Bahri (ITAM, Mexico City); and Professor Jide Nzelibe (Northwestern University, Chicago).
Dr. Kate Litondo from the University of Nairobi gave a presentation on ecommerce and digitization, covering the following objectives:
Prof. Timothy Mwololo Waema gave a presentation on the 41st UNCTAD course on key issues on the international economic agenda. The presentation covered the following topics:
The forty-first UNCTAD regional course on key issues on the international economic agenda organized by the University of Nairobi, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kenya. Covered the following topics:
Global Lecture Series, Wenzhou-Kean University, China. Presented to students and faculty at the Wenzhou-Keane University.The rise of the digital economy is one of the defining features of the contemporary global economy. It is also one of the fastest rising components of global trade. Drawing on the experience of China and developing country regions like Africa and the Caribbean the paper identifies a road-map for building connectivity and for facilitating market entry.
Segundo Encuentro de Carnavales del Caribe, La Fundación Carnaval de Barranquilla, Barranquilla, Colombia. The Meeting of "Carnavales del Caribe" discusses the economic contribution of Carnival in the Caribbean region. Drawing on the Caribbean’s experience, the paper provides policy direction by way of identifying both, mechanisms to strengthen export capabilities, and measures geared towards targeted industrial upgrading and enterprise development with respect to the region’s creative sector.