“TRADE”– That five letter word with very deep meaning-.

“……..No Gold, no iron ore, no platinum, no titanium, no uranium, no bauxites, no diamonds, no rubber, no timbers and no copper must leave Africa as raw materials. Only finished products…... "This quote has been attributed to the Rwandan President, Paul Kagame.

On the 25th of January, 2023 at Eko Hotel and Suites Lagos Nigeria, the UK Government launched its Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) in Nigeria. The DCTS, an elaborate document, claims to offer one of its most generous sets of trading preferences in the world, and Nigeria would be one of the beneficiaries of the Scheme. Currently, Nigeria has bilateral trade relations with over 31 countries.

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Whilst this all sounds very exciting, it plunged me into a deeper thought and I began to question what trade was really all about. Buying and selling which is as old as the world itself would be what most laymen would understand it to mean, but No! the “BIG” word is -Trade. If you ask me, the word Trade should equally be a very simple term. It should not even need a definition. It should be understood as simply as meaning people exchanging goods for money or commodities, but alas!, it is not that simple because it drags along with it such other big terms like (GATT)(MFN)(NTB)(FTZ)(FTA)and many more, all created by the World Trade Organization.(please see full meaning of the acronyms below).

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Digging further, my quest took me right down into history. This history which I would make a quick dive in and out of in this piece, would prove useful as I quickly realized that trade deals are really not all about –Tariffs, GDP growth, quotas nor really even about job creation, but it is all about RULES, REGULATIONS and POLICIES, and guess what?, these rules and policies shape our world. It literally created the world in which we live in today and that is why paying keen attention to it as a Nation is of grave importance. Now, let’s take a tiny bit of history lesson.

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The modern era of trade started at about 1944. It was close to the end of the Second World War. As the battles of war raged on and ravished countries and their economies, On July 1, 1944, delegates from forty-four nations gathered together in the tiny town of Bretton Woods, New Hampshire to deliberate in what eventually became known as the “Bretton Woods Conference”. The major discussion at the conference was how to foster world peace and also to agree on a system of economic order and international cooperation which would foster long-term global growth. They generally thought that if countries could depend on each other for materials needed for survival, countries would not be inclined go to war with each other because they would have become friends, and so to forge these friendship or alliances, they needed to make rules and policies and believe it or not, this is what global trade is really all about- RULES, REGULATIONS and POLICIES. This is what has led the world to where it is now. Of course there are still issues that affect global trade or international trade such as environmental regulations, national sovereignty and so on, but coming back to DCTS, I now wonder, did Nigeria have any input in the rules and policies that will apply to it in DCTS?. Was the document reviewed by the Nigerian government to ensure that the rules and polices contained is indeed mutually beneficial? A good part of the DCTS document is hinged on export of agricultural produce and other raw materials, and this naturally makes my mind to drift to the statement attributed to President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, and as I ponder on his statement, I cannot help but wonder what could have been my own stance if I had the opportunity to review the document on behalf of Nigeria.

(GATT - general agreement on tariffs and trade MFN - most favoured nation NTB - non trade barriers FTZ - free trade zone FTA - free trade agreement)