Africa and the ‘New Washington Consensus’: Green Industrialisation Through a Rethink of International Economic Law Rules

This article examines how the New Washington Consensus is reshaping industrial policy and international economic law, with particular attention to the implications of unilateral climate‐related trade measures for African countries. Drawing on doctrinal and policy analyses of the European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, the United States Inflation Reduction Act, relevant WTO agreements and African regional instruments, the article identifies a double asymmetry: major economies have greater fiscal capacity to deploy green industrial policies, while African states remain constrained by existing trade rules. The article argues for multilateral scrutiny and differentiated implementation of unilateral climate measures; renewed policy space for development‐oriented subsidies and bounded local content requirements; and closer alignment among WTO reform, the AfCFTA and African industrial‐development initiatives. These reforms would enable African countries to pursue low‐carbon industrialisation and regional value chains without abandoning the multilateral trading system.