Exploring Religious Studies as Remedy for Value Challenges in International Trade and Policy

Abstract

This study has exposed value challenges in international trade.
The analysis is based on reviews of related literature, discussions
with some academics from sub-Saharan Africa, South-East Asia
and Latin America through the ResearchGate medium;
supplemented by experiences and observations from the global
South. The research identified, among other things, that: majority
of developing countries do not benefit much from the trade due to
embedded system biases. The Doha agreements that should have
delivered on a range of important matters like subsidies, tariffs,
and intellectual property so as to remove the trade inequalities
for years have also not been addressed. This situation does not
only undermine the legitimacy of WTO, but also its moral stance.
This study is important because it has not only highlighted value
challenges in the trade system, but also suggested the integration
of religious studies’ qualitative perspectives with the quantitative
neoclassical economic models that undergird the trade system.
This would make the latter human centered. As such, the study
has contributed to the ongoing academic discourse about the role
of religion in matters of economic development, particularly in
international trade and policy.