TRADE REMEDIES AS EMANCIPATORY MECHANISMS FOR COMPETITIVE PRICE DIFFERENTIATION CHALLENGES WITHIN AND OUTSIDE THE AFRICAN CONTINENTAL FREE TRADE AREA (AfCFTA)

Harrison Otieno Mbori

Abstract

The question of whether international trade remedies remain economically, politically, and legally efficacious and relevant in the 21st century is
still a lingering one. This paper makes two broad arguments in addressing
this critical question. The first is that while trade remedies can have positive externalities for individual African states, African states should implement these actions through their larger regional trading arrangements and
blocs, especially at the continental level within the African Continental Free
Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). The second argument is embedded in the view
that trade remedies, from an economic viewpoint, should first be eliminated at the multilateral level. But since the current international trading regime’s political economy and geopolitical structures might not easily allow
this anytime soon, the paper assumes that trade remedies as structured in
the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are here to stay. The author, thus, argues that for the first objective of regional implementation of regional trade
agreements (RTAs) to work appropriately, then African states should eliminate trade remedies internally. They should thereafter focus on alternative means of addressing the negative consequences of free trade through the
creation of free trade areas (FTAs) and custom unions (CUs) such as a continental competition policy. Importantly, however, these two arguments take
for granted that the current international trading system is fair and ensures
economic justice for African states and the peoples of Africa. The paper begins by tracing the immiseration that the current international trading system causes in order to paint a Third World Approach to International Law
(TWAIL) backdrop for the two arguments presented.