Post by Trade Forum on Aug 22, 2020 20:47:39 GMT 1
A NEED FOR GREATER COMMITMENT TO EXPORT AT A CRITICAL TIME LIKE THIS
In a time like this, it is crucial that the battle to save lives from Covid-19 is coupled with long-term efforts to protect livelihoods and ways of life. It is no gainsaying that there is much that we must work to protect. We know too that trade drives productivity and innovation and it also lifts employment, incomes and contributes to social cohesion. People around the world have been living longer and better lives through trade and commerce.
Ultimately, export trade has created more jobs globally and allowed goods or services to cost effectively reach those who need them. Many trading nations and individuals have derived success by operating globally.
Export involves international trading to supply critical inputs as part of value chains, essential services and crucial investment. Export is essential at the best of times. Our pre-Covid-19 daily routine was made possible by deep trade routes, selling and exporting commodities. Free-flowing trade plays a key role in crises such as this covid-19 by getting vital supplies where they are most needed. No country is entirely self-sufficient in the provision of all vital medicines, medical supplies and equipment, let alone all of the equally critical agricultural products or other essential goods and services that flow across borders.
To combat a global problem necessitates a global response. If countries are to emerge from this crisis successfully, this will require more cooperation, not less. As part of the response to this global crisis, there is need of refraining from the imposition of unnecessary export controls or tariffs and of removing any existing trade restrictive measures on essential goods, especially food and medical supplies at this time.
Such policies will only harm and not help the response to the virus, and any measures that are necessary on public health grounds should be transparent, time limited and proportionate. Critical infrastructure such as our air and sea ports should as well remain open to support the viability and integrity of supply chains globally.
Ironically, some ignorant people think this crisis should mean less trade, while some argue for a rolling back of the trade liberalisation that has underpinned much of the world's economic growth over recent decades. Increased protectionism would only harm the world's recovery from Covid-19, slowing the necessary return of economic and employment growth.
While there can be good reasons for targeted reshoring of truly essential capabilities, we should not over do it or let it affect global trade. Putting in place more trade barriers would be the worst possible response to global economic uncertainty. More barriers may further erode business confidence and would slow the investment needed to restart many economies. Developing countries like Nigeria and others, which have often seen the greatest transformation from opening up, might find themselves shut out of world markets, reducing prosperity and employment.
Therefore, there is urgent need to put in place measures to restore and deepen global trade. Just as the shared calamity of World War II compelled nations to negotiate the settlement at Bretton Woods, so too should the Covid-19 outbreak lead us to deepen our commitment to shared rules for the governance of global trade and investment.
Therefore, countries of the world should resist the temptation of creating standstill on trade barriers and, ideally, agree to roll them back and join hands in continuing policies to enhance lives and livelihoods as we watch this Covid-19 crisis fade away.
In a time like this, it is crucial that the battle to save lives from Covid-19 is coupled with long-term efforts to protect livelihoods and ways of life. It is no gainsaying that there is much that we must work to protect. We know too that trade drives productivity and innovation and it also lifts employment, incomes and contributes to social cohesion. People around the world have been living longer and better lives through trade and commerce.
Ultimately, export trade has created more jobs globally and allowed goods or services to cost effectively reach those who need them. Many trading nations and individuals have derived success by operating globally.
Export involves international trading to supply critical inputs as part of value chains, essential services and crucial investment. Export is essential at the best of times. Our pre-Covid-19 daily routine was made possible by deep trade routes, selling and exporting commodities. Free-flowing trade plays a key role in crises such as this covid-19 by getting vital supplies where they are most needed. No country is entirely self-sufficient in the provision of all vital medicines, medical supplies and equipment, let alone all of the equally critical agricultural products or other essential goods and services that flow across borders.
To combat a global problem necessitates a global response. If countries are to emerge from this crisis successfully, this will require more cooperation, not less. As part of the response to this global crisis, there is need of refraining from the imposition of unnecessary export controls or tariffs and of removing any existing trade restrictive measures on essential goods, especially food and medical supplies at this time.
Such policies will only harm and not help the response to the virus, and any measures that are necessary on public health grounds should be transparent, time limited and proportionate. Critical infrastructure such as our air and sea ports should as well remain open to support the viability and integrity of supply chains globally.
Ironically, some ignorant people think this crisis should mean less trade, while some argue for a rolling back of the trade liberalisation that has underpinned much of the world's economic growth over recent decades. Increased protectionism would only harm the world's recovery from Covid-19, slowing the necessary return of economic and employment growth.
While there can be good reasons for targeted reshoring of truly essential capabilities, we should not over do it or let it affect global trade. Putting in place more trade barriers would be the worst possible response to global economic uncertainty. More barriers may further erode business confidence and would slow the investment needed to restart many economies. Developing countries like Nigeria and others, which have often seen the greatest transformation from opening up, might find themselves shut out of world markets, reducing prosperity and employment.
Therefore, there is urgent need to put in place measures to restore and deepen global trade. Just as the shared calamity of World War II compelled nations to negotiate the settlement at Bretton Woods, so too should the Covid-19 outbreak lead us to deepen our commitment to shared rules for the governance of global trade and investment.
Therefore, countries of the world should resist the temptation of creating standstill on trade barriers and, ideally, agree to roll them back and join hands in continuing policies to enhance lives and livelihoods as we watch this Covid-19 crisis fade away.
