Protecting Ghana’s Interests
National Protectionist Policies of Europe and America has thrown away World Trade Organisation (WTO) engagement rules on free trade among nations of which Donald Trump of the USA is ignorant of. Today, we see China and the USA in trade war, in which we are seeing and witnessing who imposes tougher trade tariff to protect the interest of their countries.
In my country Ghana where we grow tropical fruits and vegetables of which we have comparative advantage to grow, we have had to contend with WTO rule to impose a 3% on fruits, vegetables and other farm produce from USA, Asia and Europe to African country like Ghana. Each day, we have witnessed plane loading off produce than plane loading on produce to other destinations from Ghana and Africa. To this, Africans have witnessed cheaper farm produce as against locally produced ones which has in the long run collapsed local participation with increases in foreign imports resulting in food insecurity challenge for Ghana and Africa in that regards.
Today, many Africans have lost their jobs and livelihood due to cheap imports from Asian and Europe to Africa. Europeans were able to develop industrially due to the fact that they restricted foreign importation and empowered local participation of the citizens in the local economy but today they have ignored plights of especially Africans to develop their agriculture and industries.
This attitude of the global powers has increased the challenges in Africa as more women and youths leaves the land with dire food security challenges in Africa to nor existence jobs abroad, with high crime rates among youths and prostitution in women, to poor economic development.
Limited job openings available to the labour force suggest policy failure with socio‐political and economic implications. The inability of jobseekers to secure gainful employment tends to create disaffection among these people and causes some of them, especially women and the youth to resort to social vices such as robbery, prostitution and political unrest. Indeed, unemployment constitutes underutilization of human resources and the failure to prevent these resources going to waste does not only make them vulnerable to poverty but is also a loss of potential income tax revenue to the nation.
In Ghana again, our government is closing down business institutions like the banks and many more where innocent Ghanaians have gone to deposit their funds with many losing their lifelong savings to poor supervision from central banks as Ghana loses seven indigenous banks. Secondly, Ghanaians in 2017- 2018 terminated services of over two million Ghanaians in both public and private firms across Ghana. If this phenomenal were to happen in the developed countries the central government would have recapitalized those institutions to recover in order to sustain the jobs of the masses as it did happens in global financial crisis in the early to mid-2000. But in Africa, the west has tired off the hands of African governments so that the continent frustrate lifestyles of young people or Africa becomes dumping ground for all cheap inferior goods and services. Globalization in addition to liberalization has widened the poverty gaps between rich nations and poor nations as African leaders continues to ignore their responsibility and deny her citizens of the needed investment and development.
The world leaders especially in America and Europe tells African government that they have no business creating businesses or employment, when aftermath of independence, the continent has survived on grants and free aids to the neglect of African leaders to create jobs and even sustain already established businesses and as we speak over 225 million of African women and youths are in need of sustained jobs of which many cross the Sahara desert in search of greener pastures in Europe and America.
With three percent (3%) import tariff on fruits and vegetables, Africans do not stand any chance to compete in today’s liberalization and globalization markets. Today, our farmers cannot grow pepper and cabbage because cheaper onions and cabbage are coming in from the Netherlands and China. If Donald Trump can ignore and throw WTO engagement rules to protect Americans interest then those of us in Africa especially Ghana can do same to protect the livelihoods and jobs of Africans but more especially Ghanaians.
So Africans what are we waiting for in protecting our jobs and livelihoods for our women and youths?