The members of the WCP team at the University of Nairobi participated in organizing and attending the 2nd meeting of the East African Community (EAC) Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Forum.
This book explores the ways to 'rethink', 'repackage' and 'rescue' world trade law in the post-COVID-19 era. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as an important context, the book makes original and critical contributions to the growing debate over a range of emerging challenges and systemic issues that might change the landscape of world trade law in the years to come. The book asks: do these unprecedented times and challenges call for reengineering the world trading system and a further retreat from trade liberalisation?
"Future Pandemic Management: A Roundtable Discussion", organised by British Embassy Mexico City and C Minds
Roundtable:Gender and Social Inclusion in Trade
Agreements.
Panelists:
Mariangela Linoci, UNCTAD;
Bogolo Kenewendo, Former Minister of Trade, Botswana, and Economic Development Consultant;
Gloria Atuheirwe, Director Women in Trade at TradeMark East Africa;
Amrita Bahri, Professor, ITAM;
Margaret Ventura, Directorate General for Foreign Trade, Belize;
Mónica Lugo, PRODENSA, Mexico
I moderated the roundtable discussions on trade-policy agenda and gender, at International Trade and Gender Symposium, organised by ECLAC UN, and supported by UK Aid and WTO. In this session, we discussed the similarities and differences between these different ways of addressing gender considerations in trade policy context. We took stock of what has been achieved so far through different initiatives, what other developments can we expect in the near future, and what is needed to make the inclusion of gender considerations in trade agreements a "game changer" for women.
Organised this online conference, with 20+ speakers and discussants from different universities and 100+ participants overall. The discussions focussed on rethinking, repackaging and rescuing world trade law. Details here: https://lawschoolsgloballeague.com/event/summer-academic-conference-17-…
The experience to date in the WTO suggests that the plurilingual nature of the WTO Agreements does not make treaty interpretation significantly more difficult than it would be with a text authentic in one language only. The terms of a plurilingual treaty are presumed to have the same meaning in each authentic text, which means that a treaty interpreter need not compare the authentic texts as a routine matter as a matter of law.
This chapter highlights the linkages between the climate crisis and trade negotiations in a dystopic post-WTO world. It argues that the window of opportunity to achieve an effective multilateral trade regime has closed and will be sealed shut by accelerating climate change. The post-WTO regime is a megaregional regime, and it will exclude those countries that do not get on board before the destabilizing effects of the climate crisis make their inclusion impossible to achieve. Geopolitical shifts destabilized the WTO regime and have led to its collapse.
The unprecedented economic crisis triggered by the outbreak of COVID-19 is already having dramatic effects on world trade and appears very likely to trigger lasting changes to the world trading system, regardless of how the next phase of 'opening up' from lock downs progresses. Against this background the Global Economy and Finance Programme at Chatham House and University of Sussex co-hostes a round table under the UK Trade Policy Observatory on 'What Will COVID-19 Mean for the Participation of Developing Countries in the Global Trading System in the Short and Long Run?'.
Note: All views or omissions are author's own. This paper is solely for academic exchange purposes, and it does not reflect or suggest WTO's view on this or any other matter at all.