Special Economic Zones in an Era of Multilateralism Decadence and Struggles for Post-Pandemic Economic Recovery: Perspectives from the Global South

Recent years have seen a proliferation of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in developed and developing countries. Developed in Europe in its modern shape, most SEZs are located outside the continent today, notably in the developing world, where SEZs form part of these countries' export-oriented growth policy tools and overall economic development. At a period of growing unilateralism and the return of the State as an economic actor, this contribution seeks to tackle the rise of SEZ laws in the global south, with a particular focus on Africa. It will scrutinize the reasons for their establishment, the measures chosen to promote them, and the international ramifications in these respective regions and broadly on the global plane, notably at the WTO. With the entry into force of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement, African countries face challenges of multi-layered SEZ governance, which this contribution intends to address. These challenges also extend to the cross-regional trade agreements these countries conclude, individually and as a bloc. Since SEZs are often assimilated with a category of subsidies and are discriminatory trade measures, this contribution, in essence, investigates the extent to which current trade rules at multilateral and regional levels address these controversial aspects of SEZs.

Evolution Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Global Dairy Trade

There are imbalances and uncertainties in the global supply and demand of dairy products, owing to the adverse influence of overall economic changes, dairy prices, agricultural politics, the COVID-19 pandemic, and severe climate. This paper aims to explore the evolving characteristics and influencing factors of the global dairy trade pattern and make recommendations for the sustainable development of the global dairy trade. This paper studies the evolutionary characteristics of the global dairy trade pattern from the perspective of the overall structure, individual characteristics, and core–periphery structure through complex network analysis (CNA), using the countries involved in dairy trade from 2000 to 2020. Furthermore, this study explores the influencing factors of the dairy trade network using a quadratic allocation procedure (QAP). The results indicate that the global dairy trade network has been expanding, with prominent scale-free features and small-world characteristics. Individual countries display obvious heterogeneity, whereas the core import regions of the dairy shift from Europe, East Asia, and America to North America, the Middle East, and East Asia. Contrary to this, there is no significant change in the core export regions. Consequently, the entire dairy trade network represents a clear core–periphery structure. Moreover, the income per capita gaps, geographic distance gaps, and common language always affect the trade value and dairy trade relations across the countries. Meanwhile, economic level gaps and regional trade agreements have become increasingly significant. Thus, the dairy trade may not follow the "border effect”. Lastly, this paper also extends recommendations for the sustainable development of the dairy trade. © 2023 by the authors.

Consumer mobility and expenditure during the COVID-19 containments: Evidence from French transaction data.

This paper investigates the effects of the pandemic containment periods in France on individuals' movements, expenditure and adaptation to the shock, using billions of French bank card transactions measured before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We measure not only the effect on consumer expenditure, but also on quantities directly related to the containment restrictions, such as consumer mobility, number of retailers visited, and inter-regional purchases. The results show large effects on these measures of consumers' movements, as well as on both online and offline measures of expenditure, particularly in the first containment period. We also find evidence that consumers adjusted rapidly during the first containment period, mitigating the effects of mobility restrictions via an increasing shift toward online purchasing, and that the nature of the adaptation differed for different types of purchase.

US-China Geoeconomic Tensions: Implications for the African Continental Free Trade Area

Passage of the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) occurs at a time of rising tensions between the United States and China. Africa's growth and development prospects depend on a functioning and stable multilateral trading system, but recourse to economic nationalism and protectionism is increasingly undermining the open global economy and, indeed, the liberal international order on which free and fair trade depends. This article examines the implications of US-China tensions for the CFTA while assessing the opportunity for closer engagement between African countries and an axis of emerging powers led by China in an enhanced Global South strategy.

ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION AND REGIONAL INTEGRATION IN THE POST-COVID ERA

While significant, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on economic globalization and regional integration is temporary. The same objective factors that existed before the pandemic will determine integration trends in the future. The key role belongs to scientific and technical progress, and the effect of the pandemic was rather on the stimulating side here. Research in the field of medicine accelerated, online mode is already all-pervading and digitalization tends to become ubiquitous. The crisis has brought closer the onset of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is expected to open the next stage of globalization, entailing shifts in the structure and dynamics of world production and trade. It can be assumed that new technologies will contribute to the development of the organization of global value chains (GVC), one of the main drivers of economic globalization and regional integration. Probable changes in the way of life and the corresponding shifts in consumption patterns in favor of services will also contribute to modifications in the structure of GVCs. Apparently, we should expect an increase in the processes of glocalization, which can be briefly defined as globalization with local specifics. COVID-19, which has caused disruptions in supply chains, has strengthened the course of self-reliance in the economic policy of some countries. The inconsistency between the method used by governments (protectionism) and the driving forces of the phenomenon that they are trying to resist (scientific and technological progress) leads to losses in productivity and competitiveness. It is necessary to distinguish between re-industrialization, stimulated by artificial methods, from re-industrialization, which has objective reasons and corresponds to the evolution of the world economy. The latter is not equivalent either to the return of previously exported production facilities or to the re-creation of the “pre-globalization” economic structure and cannot be regarded as a manifestation of de-globalization tendencies. The world realized the need to strengthen international cooperation and develop measures aimed at joint preparation and a coordinated response to possible new threats. Outbreaks of protectionism prove to be temporary. The long-term trend towards international trade liberalization will continue. © 2022.