LY Van Anh

Each era writes its own grammar of the world. Ours – restless and unruly – is being invented at great speed: amid geopolitical upheavals, climatic fevers, and technological disruptions, economic globalization is in constant reconfiguration. Neither entirely the same nor entirely different, it advances through successive shifts, sometimes hesitates, often veers off course, and compels us – scholars and practitioners alike – to renew our tools, our readings, and our imaginaries.

When the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) remarks that “the future of trade is services, digital, green^[1]”, she is not merely taking a position: she is revealing a shift in motion. What some call “deglobalization” may, in fact, be nothing more than a change of orbit. Flows do not vanish; they move. Raw materials give way to data, value chains shorten or relocate, and political preferences take on the weight of vital priorities. Global trade moves forward – but differently: driven by new questions, deliberate tensions, and promises yet to be deciphered.

In this ongoing metamorphosis, three shifts assert themselves with almost tectonic clarity: a green turn, now an unavoidable horizon as the planet demands justice and prudence; a digital turn, which increasingly shapes our daily lives and moves trade into immaterial realms; and finally, a security turn, redefining interdependence in a world where trust is negotiated in rhythm with crises.

These transformations also compel institutions to reinvent themselves. The multilateralism we long took for granted is showing its limits, even as the WTO seeks to re-anchor itself in a shaken landscape: unattainable consensus, a suspended Appellate Body, and joint initiatives attempting to breathe new life into international cooperation. While the multilateral architecture wavers, bilateral, regional, and plurilateral agreements proliferate. They have become genuine normative laboratories, experimenting with new clauses, new values, and new relationships between trade, environment, security, and sovereignty.

Actors, too, are changing faces. Some states emerge or assert themselves, while others withdraw or realign their alliances. Private actors are no longer mere observers: NGOs, Indigenous communities, investors, environmental groups, corporations, and legal activists now shape the very contours of international economic law. Globalization is no longer solely the business of governments: it is inhabited, debated, contested, and transformed by a plurality of actors whose voices grow ever louder.

Digital Trade: Legal Instruments and Challenges

The reflections of students now lead us into the heart of the transformations of digital trade, where data, sovereignty, and regulation are reshaping the contours of the global economy.

NGUYEN Quang Khai and NGUYEN Thi Thu Thuy open the discussion with a systematic review that highlights a paradox: while digital trade is expanding at a remarkable pace, no global definition or standardized measurement method has achieved consensus. Drawing on a wide range of doctrinal sources and the methodological frameworks of the Handbook on Measuring Digital Trade, the authors show how the immaterial nature of flows and the absence of common statistical norms fragment data, obscure the reading of digital value chains, and hinder the design of truly informed public policies. Their analysis illuminates a field still searching for its compass.

With incisive prose, Leïla BENABDELOUHAB then offers a critical reading of the WTO Agreement on Electronic Commerce. Examining both the clauses and, importantly, the silences of the text, she reveals how this new instrument can reinforce power relations inherited from racial capitalism and neocolonial structures. The prohibition of tariffs on electronic transmissions, the lack of binding rules on data localization or source code treatment, and weak development provisions create a landscape where major digital players consolidate their dominance, while Global South countries see their room for maneuver shrink. This powerful analysis exposes the political underside of a smoothly polished techno-solutionist discourse.

DU Vu Quynh Anh, CHU Trang Anh, and PHAM Quoc Hao then examine the compatibility between the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and international trade law. By comparing the EU’s requirements for personal data protection with the disciplines of the WTO’s General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the authors identify several tensions: while trade agreements aim to ensure the free flow of data, the GDPR imposes safeguards that may conflict with national treatment, most-favored-nation principles, or market access. Yet international law allows interpretive space: the protection of fundamental rights, including privacy, can justify certain restrictions. Their nuanced examination sheds light on the fault lines between digital sovereignty and trade liberalization.

Finally, NGUYEN Thao Nhi and NGUYEN Tra My tackle a challenge that has become central: how to reconcile personal data protection with the booming trade in data. By comparing the legal frameworks of the European Union, California, China, and Vietnam, they show that models diverge, tensions accumulate, and trade-offs remain fragile. Their analysis, directed toward Vietnamese policymakers, offers pathways to build a system capable of protecting individuals while allowing companies to thrive in a trust-based digital economy.

Trade and Sustainable Development: An Ever-Multifaceted Dilemma

Global economic regulation, profoundly shaken by climate change, increasing human mobility, and the transformation of productive models, faces a structural tension. On one hand, the pursuit of economic development remains an imperative, particularly for developing countries. On the other, the necessity to integrate ecological limits and social imperatives has become an unavoidable constraint.

Trade as a Driver for Economic Development

At the heart of these contributions lies the question of developing countries’ adaptability to international trade dynamics, with Vietnam serving as a particularly illustrative case study.

From an agricultural trade perspective, LUONG Thi Ngoc Huyen and DANG Le Thanh Mai examine the opportunities offered by the CPTPP for Vietnamese coffee exports to Canada. Their analysis highlights that export competitiveness now depends on structural levers – quality, innovation, and supply chain organization – which determine developing economies’ capacity to consolidate their integration into global value chains.

BUI Ngoc Khanh Linh, NGO The Vu, and NGUYEN Quang Vu offer an in-depth examination of the compliance of Vietnamese seafood companies with stringent European standards aimed at combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, drawing on the Thai experience. Their study emphasizes that sustainable economic development cannot be achieved without effective alignment between regulatory frameworks, corporate practices, and market incentives.

Finally, through a study of the effects of european new rules on foreign subsidies in East Asian countries, particularly China, Japan, and ASEAN member states, Séréna ORTIGOSA-FERNANDEZ demonstrates that the 2022 Foreign Subsidies Regulation represents a new European approach to protecting the domestic market and promoting fairer competition. This development reveals a growing tension between economic sovereignty and trade openness, likely to influence investment strategies in East Asia and contribute to a broader reconfiguration of international trade balances.

Towards More Sustainable Economic Development

While economic objectives remain at the heart of priorities, the discussions extend the reflection by questioning the conditions of their sustainability. It is no longer merely a matter of producing and trading more, but of rethinking the very purposes of economic development in light of fundamental rights, social balances, environmental limits, and global vulnerabilities. The contributions gathered here explore the ways in which trade and international regulation can become instruments of sustainable transformation, rather than factors that exacerbate inequalities and crises.

In this perspective, Charlotte TESSIER analyzes the reconciliation between the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions and bilateral or regional agreements, in light of the concept of cultural sovereignty. Her research shows that these instruments, often perceived as antagonistic – trade liberalization on one hand, state intervention on the other – can, on the contrary, be combined to preserve cultural diversity. Exceptions and quotas, subsidies, and mechanisms for cultural cooperation thus appear as essential levers to balance market openness with the protection of cultural identities, as illustrated by the approaches of the European Union, Canada, China, and New Zealand, which are both contrasting and convergent. In the digital era, however, platform dominance and algorithmic logics introduce new challenges, requiring constant adaptation of legal instruments and public policies.

NGUYEN Han Giang then highlights the close link between climate change and labor migration, based on a concrete case study from the Greater Mekong region. Her analysis reveals how human mobility can serve as an adaptation strategy to environmental disruptions, provided it is framed by strengthened protections for workers and regional cooperation mechanisms.

Jacqueline Noëlle SOPPO EKAME focuses, in turn, on the intersection of fundamental rights, corporate social responsibility, and economic development. Through the study of mining impacts on local populations and the regulatory frameworks designed to ensure their safety, her contribution underscores the central role of local communities and civil society. Human security is envisioned here as an integrative regulatory tool, enabling the reconciliation of economic exploitation with the prevention of human rights violations and the remediation of harms, in accordance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Elisa LE YONDRE then examines the fragmentation of carbon regulation regimes, emphasizing that the construction of a fairer and more coherent market requires a redesign of the existing multilateral architecture. Her analysis advocates for renewed dialogue between the WTO and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as well as greater participation of Global South countries in the formulation of future climate standards.

Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted crucial public health challenges, questioning the capacity of states to ensure access to treatments and vaccines for their populations amid significant international constraints. Maude TREMBLAY and Océane DONATO examine the reconciliation between the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the right to public health. They highlight the limits of existing mechanisms, the persistent dependence of developing countries on exemptions, and the resistance of major economic powers. The authors call for a rebalancing between intellectual property protection and equitable access to medicines, an essential condition for the WTO to contribute to the emergence of a more just, inclusive, and resilient global trade system.

International Investments and Normative Sovereignty

In a context marked by the intensification of international investment flows and the proliferation of investor protection instruments, the question of states’ normative sovereignty has gained renewed urgency. Long regarded as a privileged vector for legal certainty and economic attractiveness, international investment law is now being scrutinized for its capacity to preserve the regulatory space necessary to pursue objectives of general interest, whether social, environmental, or strategic.

Paul URANGA’s study examines how states seek to safeguard their normative autonomy in the face of proliferating investment protection agreements and the rise of investor-state arbitration. The evolution of conventional instruments – from indirect restrictions on access to investor-state arbitration to the inclusion of explicit protective clauses in treaties – reveals a gradual attempt to balance investment protection with the public interest. While the effectiveness of these mechanisms remains largely dependent on arbitral interpretation, they nevertheless illustrate a more nuanced and balanced approach to international investment law.

Floriane LEURELE, for her part, focuses on the European Union’s foreign direct investment (FDI) screening policies, identifying the emergence of genuine community-wide economic security. The 2019 and 2024 regulations reflect a shift toward stricter FDI control, initially motivated by risks associated with Chinese investments but now embedded in a more autonomous European strategy. This approach seeks to reconcile market openness with the protection of strategic interests while clarifying and harmonizing the division of competences between the EU and its member states.

Emna BARKI highlights a major innovation in the 2023 Investment Protocol, compared with recent international agreements such as the USMCA, CPTPP, or CETA. Designed to attract investments while integrating sustainability objectives and preserving states’ regulatory space, the Protocol redefines “investment” based on criteria related to contributions to sustainable development, targets protections more narrowly, and limits recourse to investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). This approach strengthens states’ capacity to regulate in the public interest without fearing systematic litigation. The proposed replacement of ISDS with diplomatic or inter-state mechanisms represents an innovative direction, though its effectiveness will depend on the finalization of procedural modalities.

Finally, PHAM Xuan Phong explores persistent tensions between ISDS mechanisms and climate action policies. Using the Vietnamese case as an example, he proposes institutional pathways to reconcile investment legal security with environmental imperatives – an issue of crucial importance for a country both highly attractive to foreign capital and particularly exposed to the effects of climate disruption.

New Actors and New Models of Economic Integration

Contemporary globalization is being reshaped by the combined effects of geopolitical tensions, the fragmentation of trade flows, and the acceleration of technological transformations. In this shifting context, economic integration is no longer built exclusively around traditional poles; it is being redefined through emerging actors and the multiplication of new models of economic integration.

Ben Lamine OMAR, Rhilane HOUSSAM, and Ichou MOHAMMED-ADIL highlight Morocco’s emblematic role in these transformations. Through its strategic repositioning within the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the Kingdom seeks to assert itself as a driving force in African integration. Based on a combination of documentary analysis and a gravity model of trade flows, the study shows that AfCFTA membership significantly boosts trade, strengthens institutional credibility, and fosters regional regulatory harmonization. The authors note, however, that the agreement’s effects are neither automatic nor immediate: geographical distance remains an obstacle, and investment in infrastructure emerges as a decisive lever for maximizing economic gains.

From a more systemic perspective, Chakib CHERGUI examines the coherence of the multilateral trading system in the face of the expansion of plurilateral agreements, which risk fragmenting WTO law and jurisprudence. While highlighting the dangers of interpretive divergences and increased tensions in dispute settlement, the author advocates for stronger multilateral oversight of these initiatives, based on the principle of a single undertaking and with due consideration for the interests of developing countries.

Which Globalization Are We Heading Toward, as New Forces and Equilibria Emerge?

Across the articles, a common thread emerges: a world in flux, where yesterday’s certainties waver and new horizons open up. Whether it is the evolution of international trade institutions, the rise of regional actors asserting their own visions, the transformation of value chains, or the increasing influence of alternative normative frameworks, each analysis reveals a convergent dynamic: globalization is no longer a fixed space, but a terrain of continuous creation, negotiation, and renegotiation.

Together, these studies show how regions long considered marginal could become centers of initiative, how rules are being reinvented under the impetus of new actors, and how interdependencies are being reshaped to weave a more plural, demanding, and open global architecture. From this emerges a strong conviction: the future of international trade will depend on our collective capacity to embrace these new voices, recognize these emerging forces, and transform this effervescence into levers for balance, inclusion, and shared progress.

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