Facing Trump’s tariffs, the continent should develop its own paradigm.
Facing Trump’s tariffs, the continent should develop its own paradigm.
By Yunus Soner, from Antalya / Türkiye
US President Donald Trump’s tariff policies have caused wide reactions. In UWI’s previous interviews, made at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, economics professor Jeffrey Sachs evaluated them as irrational, Chinese expert Professor Wang stated that his country would react, while Kenya’s Foreign Minister advocated for a joint African response.
For Ghana’s Foreign Minister, they actually present a chance for the African continent. Here’s what he stated to UWI.
Trump’s tariffs, how do they affect Ghana?
First of all, what President Trump is doing is really going against the global order with the US-led to establish. A rule-based order where we trade amongst ourselves fairly, where we negotiate, we don’t take each other by surprise, and we don’t really abuse might because you are a powerful country.
What President Trump is doing should teach us in Africa that we need to form our own systems. We need a new order and that order must be based on a fair and just integrated Africa with our own plan, on our own terms. We cannot continue to rely on the terms of the Bretton Woods institutions and the WTO and others which the US led.
Clearly the US has exited from that order, and we now need a new order, we now need a new paradigm. And that is why I am advocating for a renewed commitment to the African Continental Free Trade Area, a market of 1.4 billion people.
We have the youngest population, and we have the most resources, natural resources that the world needs. So, if we come together and then on our terms have our own rating agencies, our own risk assessment agencies and we pool resources together, we can call the shots and we can develop.
Because as we speak, intra-African trade is less than 20%. We trade more with America than we trade among ourselves as a continent. We trade more with Europe than we trade among ourselves.
I think that what Trump is doing, what the Europeans have also done, diverting resources from Africa to fight Russia, it should teach us a lesson. We are not their priority, we have never been, and we will never be. We should be our own priority.
We should focus on our own development paradigm. That is the only way forward. What Trump has done, what the Europeans are doing, as a golden opportunity for Africa to now lift itself from the ashes, get out of the dependence, become more resilient, and find African solutions, homegrown solutions for Africa’s problems.