This international conference will discuss the reform process of both the World Trade Organization (WTO) and International Investment Agreements (IIA), focusing on the position of – and impact on – the Global South. Both the WTO and IIA are increasingly being contested by several States, NGOs and other civil society actors. This has triggered a reform process in which mainly developed countries take the lead. However, both the reform of the WTO and of IIA will have a significant impact on developing countries in the South. This conference will therefore also discuss the position and role of the South in these two crucial reform processes. Whereas the first panel will discuss the WTO reform process, the second panel will focus on IIA, in particular the reform of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms. Each panel will bring together academics and practitioners from the Global South and from European countries.

The conference is the closing event of the 11th Euro-Asia Summer School and is part of a series of events on contestation of international norms by the Global South organised under the Global Minds programme of KU Leuven. It also links to the Connectivity Research Programme of the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies and the H2020 Project GLOBE (‘Global Governance and the European Union: Future Trends and Scenarios’).