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The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland that regulates and facilitates international trade. Governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that govern international trade in cooperation with the United Nations System. The WTO is the world's largest international economic organization, with 164 member states representing over 98% of global trade and global GDP.
The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) is a trade bloc agreement by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations supporting local trade and manufacturing in all ASEAN countries, and facilitating economic integration with regional and international allies. It stands as one of the largest and most important free trade areas (FTA) in the world, and together with its network of dialogue partners, drove some of the world's largest multilateral forums and blocs, including Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, East Asia Summit and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
The Trade and Industry Committee of the African Union's Economic, Social and Cultural Council is established to bridge Africa with the rest of the world, execute the investment and trade policies to boost inter and intra Africa trade, connect with stakeholders, organisations, enterprises to strengthen the economic integration, execute Agenda 2063 Continental Frameworks, provide agile and effective service to key projects, conduct business data analysis regarding the global trading business and its influence, and build Africa as a sustainable and powerful trading and industrial partner in the global arena during 2002, as a part of Africa Union, which was previously known as Organisation of African Unity (1963-1999). The current Commissioner of this department is H.E. Albert Muchanga from Zambia . This department covers the units of trade, industry, customs cooperation, AfCFTA and Mining. It deals with the following:
The Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (WTOAB) is a standing body of seven persons that hears appeals from reports issued by panels in disputes brought on by WTO members. The WTOAB can uphold, modify or reverse the legal findings and conclusions of a panel, and Appellate Body Reports, once adopted by the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), must be accepted by the parties to the dispute. The WTOAB has its seat in Geneva, Switzerland. It has been termed by at least one journalist as "effectively the supreme court of world trade".
The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) is an international agreement which establishes a multilateral framework for cross-border cooperation in the energy industry, principally the fossil fuel industry. The treaty covers all aspects of commercial energy activities including trade, transit, investments and energy efficiency. The treaty contains dispute resolution procedures both for States Parties to the Treaty and as between States and the investors of other States, who have made investments in the territory of the former. Full versions of the treaty, both consolidated and official, are readily accessible.
Dispute settlement or dispute settlement system (DSS) is regarded by the World Trade Organization (WTO) as the central pillar of the multilateral trading system, and as the organization's "unique contribution to the stability of the global economy". A dispute arises when one member country adopts a trade policy measure or takes some action that one or more fellow members consider to be a breach of WTO agreements or to be a failure to live up to obligations. By joining the WTO, member countries have agreed that if they believe fellow members are in violation of trade rules, they will use the multilateral system of settling disputes instead of taking action unilaterally — this entails abiding by agreed procedures—Dispute Settlement Understanding—and respecting judgments, primarily of the Dispute Settlement Board (DSB), the WTO organ responsible for adjudication of disputes.
The African Union (AU) is a continental union of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The bloc was founded on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and launched on 9 July 2002 in Durban, South Africa. The intention of the AU was to replace the Organization of African Unity (OAU), established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa by 32 signatory governments; the OAU was disbanded on 9 July 2002. The most important decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a semi-annual meeting of the heads of state and government of its member states.
Alternative dispute resolution (ADR), or external dispute resolution (EDR), typically denotes a wide range of dispute resolution processes and techniques that parties can use to settle disputes with the help of a third party. They are used for disagreeing parties who cannot come to an agreement short of litigation. However, ADR is also increasingly being adopted as a tool to help settle disputes within the court system.
African Export–Import Bank, also referred to as Afreximbank or Banque Africaine d’Import-Export, is a pan-African supranational multilateral financial institution created in 1993 under the auspices of the African Development Bank. It was officially launched at the first general meeting of the shareholders in Abuja, Nigeria, in October 1993. It is headquartered in Cairo, Egypt. Afreximbank is a financial provider to African governments and private businesses in support of African and Caribbean trade.
Non-violation nullification of benefits (NVNB) claims are a species of dispute settlement in the World Trade Organization arising under World Trade Organization multilateral and bilateral trade agreements. NVNB claims are controversial in that they are widely perceived to promote the social vices of unpredictability and uncertainty in international trade law. Other commentators have described NVNB claims as potentially inserting corporate competition policy into the World Trade Organization Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU).
The Panel of the Wise (PoW) is a consultative body of the African Union, composed of five appointed members who each serve three year terms. Its mandate is to provide opinions to the Peace and Security Council on issues relevant to conflict prevention, management, and resolution. Representatives are chosen for the North, East, South, West, and Central regions of the continent.
Singapore International Mediation Centre (SIMC) is an independent not-for-profit organisation in Singapore providing mediation services, through its panel of international mediators, to parties wishing to resolve their cross-border commercial disputes amicably. The centre is housed at Maxwell Chambers.
Vera Songwe is an economist and banking executive from Cameroon who worked for the World Bank from 1998 to 2015, and in 2015–2017 served as Western and Central Africa's regional director for the International Finance Corporation. She was the first woman to head the UN's Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) at the level of Under-Secretary-General. Songwe currently serves as a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution's Africa Growth Initiative.
Olajumoke Omoniyi Oduwole is a Nigerian jurist and academic. She was appointed the Prince Claus Chair holder from 2013–2015.
The Institute for Free Trade (IFT) is a private, not-for-profit, research foundation based in central London. It aims to make "the intellectual and moral case for free trade" and sees Brexit as an "opportunity to revitalise the world trading system".
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is a free trade area encompassing most of Africa. It was established in 2018 by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, which has 43 parties and another 11 signatories, making it the largest free-trade area by number of member states, after the World Trade Organization, and the largest in population and geographic size, spanning 1.3 billion people across the world's second largest continent.
Ato Panford is a Ghanaian politician and member of the Seventh Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana who represented the Shama Constituency in the Western Region on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party.
Wamkele Mene is the Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat. In February 2020, he was elected as the first Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat.
The EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) is a free trade agreement signed on 30 December 2020, between the European Union (EU), the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), and the United Kingdom (UK). It provisionally applied from 1 January 2021, when the Brexit transition period ended, before formally entering into force on 1 May 2021, after the ratification processes on both sides were completed: the UK Parliament ratified on 30 December 2020; the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union ratified in late April 2021.
The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) is a Pan-African real-time gross settlement (RTGS) infrastructure for cross-border payments in distinct local currencies. It was publicly launched on January 13, 2022 by the African Union (AU) and the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to compliment trading under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) with further future planned rollout in the Caribbean region by end of 2024.
References
- ↑ "B & P Associates | Dispute Settlement Under AfCFTA" . Retrieved 2023-06-20.
- ↑ "Dispute Resolution Protocols In African Continental Free Trade Area: Reviewing Existing Protocols And Rules - International Trade & Investment - Nigeria". www.mondaq.com. Retrieved 2023-06-20.
- ↑ "9th Meeting of the AfCFTA Dispute Settlement Body - AfCFTA". 2023-03-22. Retrieved 2023-06-20.
- ↑ Advocates, Integri Solicitors &. "Dispute Resolution Mechanisms Under AfCFTA". Integri Solicitors & Advocates. Retrieved 2023-06-20.
- ↑ "The AfCFTA Dispute Settlement Mechanism as part of a continental Trade Regime - tralac trade law centre". www.tralac.org. Retrieved 2023-06-20.