International Trade: Ensuring Fairer Wealth Distribution

More than just a ritual, the Head of State, President Paul Biya and members of the diplomatic Corps in Cameroon once more communed on Friday 6 January, 2023. They had to make a toast each before presenting New Year wishes for 2023. It was therefore an opportunity to examine some crucial global issues that have caught the attention of both parties. One such concern is the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine that erupted in 2022 just at a time that the world was trying to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.     
When the pandemic started having ripple effects across the globe, many economies virtually got to collapsed because of closure of borders by manyss countries. The heavy death toll from the pandemic and several industries shutdown of industries also dealt a serious blow tosss the economies of nations that had no real basis on which to build their resilience. As the disease was witnessing a lull and the countries picking up the pieces, the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out with other devastating consequencess especially in developing countries. Thus, the year 2022 was characterised by an increase not only on the prices of consumer goods, but virtually all products.     s
Such a scenario is imposing structural adjustments on the economic base of many countries and the resultant sgeneralised inflation is but obvious. Since most developing countries are still lagging behind as far as industrialisation is concerned, they equally face the brunt of the increase in cost for most basic commodities more than anyone else. It was therefore understandable that President Paul Biya came back on the impact of the war on economies in Africa and the world. It is within this context that the Head of State pointed out in his response to the New Year wishes from the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, the Ambassador of Gabon Paul Parick Biffot that : “The year 2022, which has just ended, was marked mainly by the lingering adverse effects of this pandemic and the outbreak of an armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine. These two major events continue to have a far-reaching impact on the stability of our economies, particularly those of developing countries, and tend to exacerbate global trade dysfunctions. As one who has often had the desire to invite conflciting parties to the negotiating table, Mr Biya felt the obligation to shine the spotlight on these two issues which are undeniably key to understanding the current price hikes that the world is facing.     
It is obvious that other countries will never go all out to give charity in the name of saving the global economy from any form of collapse. What is likely to happen, and which has always been the case is that nations go after safeguading their interests. Understandably therefore, an opportunit...