Global institutions such as World Trade Organisation (WTO) need to execute new global trade policies that promote equal wealth creation among nations, Amy Jadesimi, managing director of the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL) Free Zone, said at the Global Female Leaders Summit 2019 (GFL) held in Berlin recently.
Jadesimi, who was one of the five global leaders on the opening panel of GFL, said it had become clear that nations’ survival depends on the ability to decrease poverty and increase both the spread and size of global wealth.
She however believed that sustainable globalisation requires the WTO and high-income, low-growth countries to recognise that current trade policies were not designed to lead to equality and prosperity for all.
“For example, rather than simply demand that countries immediately put in place new laws to protect Intellectual Property (IP) before wealthy countries will trade with them, the focus should shift to insisting that low-income, high-growth countries develop home-grown IP to support their own market to a level that makes them globally competitive and better trading partners,” she suggested.
According to her, such countries will naturally put in place laws to protect this “home-grown” and international IP, while also adding to global prosperity, creating thousands of jobs and new innovations that will move the whole world forward.”
“Zero-sum game politics and trade policies are leading to global instability – collaboration is required on a fundamental level, particularly between governments and institutions to create new economy, sustainable technologies and business strategies,” she added.
Without radical reforms, Jadesimi said that the current global trade practices would further entrench a status quo that is undermining previous gains made through trade for high- income countries. She added that it would increase inequality across the world and make it harder for countries in Africa to lift their people out of poverty.
“The Nigerian government has taken real steps to support the indigenous private sector in Nigeria and allow it to operate, add value and grow – when our private sector is the same size as the public sector, Nigeria will be part of the G20,” she noted.
“Many positive lessons can be learnt from the formation and positive impact of the European Union (EU) on its member states, including the fact that the EU protected its markets from non-EU countries until it had reached a certain level of industrialisation. African Union (AU) is potentially one of the most important institutions we have to develop Africa. It has to look inward and develop African capacity for engineering, manufacturing and trading within the AU states,” she said.
Jadesimi explained that the continent of Africa has broadly experienced four different ages of globalisation including exploration, exploitation, expropriation, and exchange.
“The era of exchange based globalisation and trade is just beginning. To succeed it requires trade between equals, a level-playing field through which all participants, from nation states to private companies, benefit,” she said.
For exchange-based trade to be practically applicable, she pointed that countries and companies in Africa need to invest in and develop higher local capacity and quality within sustainable business models.
“This is already happening at companies such as LADOL and will lead to a significant increase in the global GDP, as well as decreases in inequality and increases prosperity,” she added.
AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
