LAW5602 International Trade Law — Unit 8: Emerging Issues in International Trade Law

Unit 8: Emerging Issues in International Trade Law

8.1 Digital Trade and Blockchain-Based Trade Documentation

1. The digital trade’s rise — the goods-to-data shift (the e-commerce’s scale; the digitally-delivered services); the pandemic’s acceleration.
2. The rules’ gaps-and-growth — the WTO’s e-commerce moratorium (the customs-duty-free-digital-transmission’s freeze — the renewal politics); the JSI on e-commerce (the plurilateral negotiation); the digital-trade chapters of the FTAs (the CPTPP-USMCA’s depth); the data-flow-and-localisation debates (the free-flow vs the sovereignty’s demands).
3. The blockchain documentation — the paper’s liberation: the electronic bills of lading (the title’s digital problem — the possession’s legal fiction resolved by the registries-and-ledgers); the smart contracts (the self-executing terms — the trade-finance automation); the platforms’ practice (the trade-lens-and-the-others’ experiments); the law’s adaptation (the MLETR — the UNCITRAL’s electronic-transferable-records model — the domestic implementation’s wave).
4. The Nepal faces — the e-commerce’s growth (the payment rails’ leap); the Digital Framework’s-and-ETA 2063’s limits (the e-documents’ recognition — the modernisation’s agenda); the traders’ digital readiness.

8.2 ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) Standards in Global Trade

1. The ESG-trade’s integration — the trade’s sustainability turn: the carbon-adjustment borders (the EU’s CBAM — the embedded-carbon’s levy: the developing exporters’ challenge — Nepal’s faces in the garments-and-steel futures); the due-diligence laws (the supply-chains’ human-rights-and-environment duties — the German-EU models; the exporters’ compliance cascade).
2. The labels-and-certifications — the voluntary standards’ force (the fairtrade-organic-FSC faces); the standards-as-barriers debates (the TBT’s intersection — U6.4).
3. The plurilateral’s faces — the trade-and-environment discussions (the fossil-fuel-subsidy reform; the environmental-goods agreements’ attempts).
4. The development’s contest — the green-conditionality’s fairness (the common-but-differentiated responsibilities’ echo — the climate-law interface).

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