The signature of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement during the 10th Extraordinary Summit of the African Union (AU) Assembly of Heads of State and Government held on 21 March 2018, in Kigali, Rwanda, marks a decisive turn in African regional economic integration. After...

As tariff barriers, of traditional and typical policy instruments in international trade, have been reduced significantly under preferential trade agreements as well as the multilateral trading system, non-tariff measures (NTMs), especially those of technical barriers to trade (TBT), become more...

Special and Differential Treatment for Developing Countries (SDT) constitutes a central feature of the GATT/WTO system. Its formal goal is to foster export-led growth in developing countries. Its theoretical foundations and empirical support are, however, weak at best. In particular, SDT...

China's infrastructure-based Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is challenging the US-led Western International Economic Governance Order (hereafter the Western order) that has been in place since the end of World War II, reflecting a global shift in power and influence from the United States to...

Since 1980 the amount of palm oil sold on the market has increased more than ten-fold. A critical public discussion regarding the cultivation of palm oil – and above all in the developing countries of South-East Asia – has developed (in the western countries). Above all local Asian companies...

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is the foremost international body responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security. Members vote on issues of global importance and consequently receive perks – election to the UNSC predicts, for instance, World Bank and IMF loans....

Commencing in the 1990s, India signed a number of bilateral investment treaties (BITs), however, after a spate of adverse investor-state dispute settlements (ISDS), India has recently denounced all its erstwhile investment treaties. New investment treaties now need to be negotiated on the basis...

The authors assess the role of the multilateral development system and the reforms needed to support the new global agenda. There is an urgency to the reforms. The coming decades will see the largest urban expansion in history. More infrastructure needs to be built in the next 15 years than the...

We use an empirical gravity equation approach to study how nonreciprocal trade preferences (NRTPs), enacted mainly through the Generalized System of Preferences, affect the exports of the beneficiary nations. In line with existing studies, the average trade effect stemming from nonreciprocal...

Regional migration within Africa and other developing regions is vital for the economic development of countries of origin and destination and for the welfare of migrants and their families (as recognized by the Sustainable Development Goal 10.7). Going forward, regional migration will be a...