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On January 1, 2022, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) officially came into force. It was implemented in six ASEAN countries and four non-ASEAN countries (China, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia) as the world's largest free trade agreement (FTA) and the first direct free trade area agreement between China and Japan, indicating that the agreement to develop China–Japan FTA relations has borne brand new results. It will be the first time China signs an FTA with the world's top 10 economies. In the context of global de-internationalization, unilateralism, and trade protectionism, as well as the adoption and implementation of various restrictions on international trade by some countries to strengthen their capacity to protect the market economy, the RCEP is an important activity for the major economies in the Asian region to actively seek change in the face of the crisis. Under the RCEP, China and Japan have reached agreements on bilateral trade in commodities, trade in services, and rules of origin, all of which will jointly promote trade between China and Japan. Analyzing the current trade situation between China and Japan, this chapter discusses the impact that the entry into force of the RCEP may have on bilateral trade between China and Japan. Moreover, this chapter provides suggestions for further developing Sino–Japan trade for reference.

This study aims to analyse the potential impacts of free trade agreement (FTA) between Indonesia and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries by eliminating import tariffs in the halal food sector on welfare, gross domestic product (GDP) and trade balance. OIC countries as the second-largest organisation after the United Nations are the potential markets for the halal food industry.

This study used the Global Trade Analysis Project database version 10 by adopting a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model for two scenarios. The first scenario stated that Indonesia should conduct an FTA with ten potential OIC countries as export destination, while the second one stated that it should be conducted with all OIC countries.

Indonesia is predicted to get the highest increase in welfare by making an FTA with all OIC countries. Scenario 2 showed that Indonesia had much higher changes in real GDP with a positive change of 0.0018%. Even though it is projected to experience a surplus in the trade balance in both scenarios, Indonesia is predicted to experience a decline in exports for the particular halal food sector. The findings contribute some new insights to the existing literature, revealing an alignment between economic integration and the concept of international trade in Islam.

The limitation of this study is the available data that cannot describe the population of all OIC countries. Only 31 countries out of a total of 56 OIC countries can be used in research. The scope of research is limited to analysing FTAs between Indonesia and OIC countries in the form of abolishing import tariffs and does not include non-tariff barrier issues such as halal certification.

The preferential trade agreement is considered relevant as Indonesia’s initial commitment to conduct a bilateral trade with ten selected OIC countries. The Indonesia Government, however, still needs to make several mitigation efforts in various sectors experiencing losses as a result of economic integration, such as by creating a more conducive business climate, supporting the sources of capital, facilitating bureaucratic affairs, as well as providing tax incentives.

This paper contributes to the literature by focusing on the critical aspects of the FTA’s impacts on halal food sectors by optimizing the reduction of import tariffs of OIC countries. Different from previous studies, this study applied a static CGE model to examine the impacts of FTA on macroeconomic indicators.

This study deals with changes in European Union's (EU's) trade potential in Machinery (HS 84–85) and Transportation (HS86-89) products.

The study uses a Structural Gravity model, Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimation together with panel data for the years 2002–2018 and a two-step procedure that employs predicted values of bilateral trade to compare potential to actual trade.

Results for Machinery products suggest a potential to expand trade with existing Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) in the American continent, and countries of the IGAD region in Africa. In Transportation, a high trade potential with RTAs is found in the Americas, Africa and the Middle East. Policy suggestions concentrate on opportunities for enhancing trade relations through trade liberalization and agreement proliferation.

There are no studies to date, that examine “collective” measure of EU trade potential, that treats the EU as a single country. Changes in existing opportunities to expand trade, common for EU members, are of special interest for policy formulation, especially after the recent turmoil presented by the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the Greek Economic Crisis (GEC). Treating the EU as a single entity, is necessary for the formulation of an effective, common, EU trade policy. This study concentrates on the manufacturing sector to examine existing opportunities for the EU to expand trade, after the GFC and the GEC. This article deals with Machinery (HS 84 and 85) and Transportation (HS 86 through 89) products as they comprise a significant part of total EU exports, reaching 41% of total exports in 2016. Finally, this study offers a unique illustration of results through trade potential heat maps.

Several countries, such as South Africa and India, believe that intellectual property rights (IPRs), including patents, impede the efficient increase in vaccine production to inoculate the global population as they scramble to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Their proposal at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to waive these pharmaceutical patents has been met with resistance from a few developed countries, who believe that the abrogation of IPRs is unnecessary, even during a pandemic. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the impact of a potential waiver of medical patents at the WTO versus the status quo of IPR laws in the global economy.

This study examines key arguments from economic and moral standpoints regarding the provisions of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement and other related international agreements and their validity based on the premise of the internalisation of positive externalities posed by vaccines.

The effectiveness of the TRIPS agreement in securing medical access is weak on account of the ability of profit-making multinationals to secure IP rights and on account of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a multilateral agreement that supports patent evergreening and a period of protection on test data which challenges the access to medicines and the fundamental human right to health.

This study examines international IPRs through the lens of human rights and proposes a new system that balances the two.

Regional economic integrations bring many economic benefits to member countries. In international competition, there are integrations that make it easier for countries to reach their goals and attract attention with their effectiveness today. The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is one of the main important regional economic integrations. This chapter details the relations Turkey can establish with the EAEU by considering the import and export data between Turkey and Russia. The research of recent data will discuss how Turkey's trade relations with Russia strengthen the EAEU and what kind of relationship will be possible in the future, considering commercial and economic integrations that are already included, as well as geographical and historical elements. This chapter will assess the potential relationship that can be established with the EAEU, given the strengthening of trade ties between Turkey and Russia. This chapter highlights the alternatives for the harmonization of Turkey's potential cooperation with the EAEU, which is planning a development strategy.

As a growth industry in the international tourism segment market, halal tourism domestic policy should align with General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) as an international trade in services regulation. This paper aims to examine Indonesia’s halal tourism policy and its intersection with obligations as a member state of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Particularly in balancing Indonesia’s international obligation and the right to regulate.

The present study uses normative legal research by analysing legal materials, primarily GATS and Indonesia’s halal tourism policy. By using this methodology, this paper seeks the normative ideal domestic approach that aligns with Indonesia’s international obligations within GATS.

Regional regulations primarily govern the halal tourism policy in Indonesia. The critical substance of the regulation is the mandatory halal certification for the implementation of halal tourism. This obligation may be incompatible with Indonesia’s commitment to liberalise the tourism sector under the GATS. The current legal framework gives rise to a lack of consistency in its application despite its adherence to the halal tourism standards established by the MUI. At the same time, the provincial and regent authorities lacked the authority to do so. The authors argue that halal tourism policy shall be promulgated in the national-level policy to settle this issue. This measure is necessary to mitigate conflicts between prevailing norms and Indonesia’s international commitments within GATS. Therefore, Indonesia can uphold both its international obligations and national interests.

This paper presents a novelty contribution by highlighting the absence of prior research examining Indonesia’s adherence to its international commitments under the GATS in formulating domestic legislation on halal tourism. To close this gap, this study suggests that national legislation governing halal tourism should consider international obligations in the tourism sector under the GATS.

Preferential market access is a pillar of the enabling clause in international trade, and as such has received scholarly attention in the recent past. This study aims to empirically examine intensity and utilisation of Uganda’s preferential market access.

Secondary data at the six-digit level of the harmonised system was sourced from the International Trade Centre’s and UN COMTRADE’s Trade Map database on trade flows to compute; trade intensity indices, Balsa’s revealed comparative advantage (RCA) indices and the existing potential trade. The time period was 2013–2022.

It is evident that Uganda is not taking full advantage of its preferential market access. The findings of the trade intensity analysis revealed that the strength of trade relations between Uganda and its preferential markets has been consistently weak in the period 2013–2022, while the intensity of trade relations with its FTA partners has been strong. The RCA results revealed that all Uganda’s agricultural exports to its preferential markets have a comparative advantage, with exports of roses reporting an exceptionally high RCA relative to other agricultural exports. The RCA results also show that the comparative advantage of Uganda’s coffee exports recovered after a significant fall in the period 2014–2022. The analysis of the existing potential for trade reveals a disproportionally low market share held by Uganda across all product lines, notably, only 2.3% of the US$29bn coffee imports in its preferential markets.

One limitation of this study is that it primarily relied on quantitative data from the International Trade Centre and thus lacks an exhaustive understanding of the circumstances at the export firm level. Qualitative data, such as interviews with exporters and policymakers, could provide deeper insights into the specific challenges and opportunities faced by Ugandan businesses in these markets.

This paper highlights the need for additional trade facilitation measures to address preferential market access bottlenecks such as stringent rules of origin and call for an aggressive government intervention in enhancing the export readiness of SMEs in Uganda. In addition, the paper is informative to Uganda’s exporters regarding the existing and potential increase in their exports to international markets.

The strength of Uganda’s trade relations with its preferential markets is empirically examined in this paper and provides useful insights for enhancing utilisation of preferential market access by beneficiary countries.

The contributions of gender equality to trade and the moderating impact of institutional quality on the trade-gender link have been understudied in contemporary literature. Therefore, this paper aims to use the augmented gravity model to investigate the impacts of gender equality and institutional quality on trade, and the moderating impact of institutional quality on the trade-gender link.

The panel data is comprised of bilateral trade flows of Vietnam and 40 major trading partners in the 2002–2021 period. Estimation methods include combined fixed effect, random effect, system generalized method of moments two-step (SGMM-II) and Poisson-pseudo maximum likelihood (PPML) which allow the treatment of heterogeneity, endogeneity and heteroskedasticity in the research models.

The exporting country’s gender equality has an inconclusive impact on trade in SGMM-II and PPML estimations. However, female labor force participation in the exporting country increases trade. Importing country’s gender equality and female labor force participation increase trade. The direct impact of institutional quality on trade is inconclusive, which is dependent on estimation methods. Most noticeably, the institutional quality of exporting and importing countries facilitates the hampering effects of gender equality and female labor force participation on trade.

Future research should apply the framework of this paper to sectoral trade, which allows more sector-specific policy implications to be delivered. Moreover, gender development, gender inequality and institutional quality should be included in the SGMM estimations as endogenous variables for robustness checking purposes in future research.

The paper has justified the integration of gender-specific issues in trade policies, which aligns trade with sustainable development agenda. The explored moderating impact of institutional quality of the exporting country has implied the trade-off relationship between gender equality and export growth in the effort to improve institutional quality. Reversely, in the case of importing countries with higher institutional quality, improved gender equality may mitigate the trade deficit by hampering import growth.

Investigating the impact of gender equality on trade is the prominent contribution of this paper. Gender equality is considered by three component indicators which include gender development, gender inequality and female labor force participation. New measurement approach to the institutional quality level is also introduced. Furthermore, the explored moderating impacts of institutional quality on the trade-gender link are novel in the literature on sustainable development.

The circular economy (CE) is a sustainable economic model that has the potential to create new opportunities, reduce environmental impact and enhance social well-being. Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), the largest city in Vietnam, has experienced rapid economic growth in recent years, but at the cost of the environment and public health. The city could reduce waste, conserve resources and promote sustainable production and consumption by adopting CE principles. Employing qualitative research, including content analysis, we construct a SWOT analysis to assess HCMC's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the CE context. The city possesses several strengths, such as a vast potential for a CE and a robust economic foundation. However, it also faces multiple weaknesses, including insufficient infrastructure, inadequate citizen and business awareness and participation, ineffective policy enforcement and a deficiency of standards for recycled products. This chapter will conclude that the CE presents an opportunity for HCMC to reduce its dependence on imported raw materials, increase local value creation and create new jobs in the CE sector.

International investment law governs matters related to transnational investments. The extensive reach of transnational corporations (TNCs) has granted them substantial economic, political and social influence, often intertwining them with public interest issues and implications in human rights violations. This paper aims to explore the profound influence exerted by TNCs in today’s globalized world and its implications for human rights and social responsibility within the framework of international investment law. Particularly, it acknowledges the vulnerability of economically weak South Asian states and cites past instances such as the Bhopal gas tragedy in India and the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh as egregious violations of human rights. Focusing on South Asian bilateral investment treaties (BITs), this paper aims to examine the scope of investors’ social accountability.

This research engages with doctrinal and analytical methods in traversing through primary and secondary sources. It would parse the arbitral tribunals’ jurisprudence for their discussion on the inclusion of social accountability obligations within international investment agreements (IIAs). Further, it engages in a quantitative analysis related to the nature of the social accountability-related obligation of the corporation within South Asian BITs.

The findings reveal a glaring absence of the law on investors’ social accountability and the need for enhanced regulatory mechanisms to address the escalating influence of TNCs on human and social rights. The absence of a robust legal framework, coupled with the asymmetric nature of international investment law, granting investors greater rights and leverage compared to states, exacerbates this challenge. The phenomenon of “regulatory chill” inhibits states from effectively enforcing regulatory measures aimed at protecting human rights and the environment. Furthermore, the broad interpretation of clauses such as “fair and equitable treatment” by investment tribunals often undermines states’ ability to implement measures in the public interest. While international organizations such as the UNCTAD and the UNCITRAL Working Group III are actively discussing reforms to IIAs, the existing guidelines addressing investors’ social accountability are woefully lacking in the content as well as the method of their integration with international human rights law. The findings underscore the imperative for South Asian nations, the subject of this research’s empirical analysis, to adopt a comprehensive approach involving both domestic law reforms to promote corporate social accountability and active pursuit of negotiations for the inclusion of binding social obligations for investors within IIAs.

This research, drawing upon international law developments, offers suggestions for incorporation of social accountability provisions via relevant domestic law reform. The research could be viewed as a prelude for mapping the legal developments in the area of investors’ social accountability within investment agreements, as well as investment contracts, drawing guidance from international law instruments.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no other study analysed the scope of investors’ social accountability in South Asian BITs.