{"id":16484,"date":"2022-06-24T08:24:19","date_gmt":"2022-06-24T08:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/coronavirus-we-must-keep-trade-with-africa-flowing"},"modified":"2022-06-24T09:24:18","modified_gmt":"2022-06-24T09:24:18","slug":"coronavirus-we-must-keep-trade-with-africa-flowing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/coronavirus-we-must-keep-trade-with-africa-flowing","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus: We must keep trade with Africa flowing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span><\/a>COVID-19 has now spread to all corners of Africa and, as the rate of infections increase, the continent\u2019s economies are coming to a crashing halt, risking the reversal of two decades of economic progress.
\nTrade has been the heartbeat of Africa\u2019s economic success, with the UK alone importing \u00a312.7bn in goods and services from Africa in 2016, much of which from the agriculture sector.
\nBut this vital economic activity, and the millions of livelihoods it sustains, is under threat. Trade volumes in the East African Community are down by up to 25% since the beginning of 2020, with even worse damage in the informal sector. There are warnings of a food security disaster on the continent. The threat is not only from COVID-19 itself.
\nAs the Overseas Development Institute\u2019s Dirk Willem te Velde explains: \u201cSome in the UK \u2013 and other large economies around the world \u2013 are arguing for autarky or increasingly protectionist policies that would wreak havoc on trade with Africa, often disguised as well-meaning social and environmental objectives, or attempts to protect domestic businesses and jobs.
\nThese protectionist voices must be resisted. \u201d
\nPolicy makers must understand the full consequences if stringent new production standards are imposed on imports, as some in the UK are calling for.
\nExports from much of Africa would be effectively locked-out from the UK and their other major markets around the world, leading to countless jobs being lost on the Continent where unemployment rates are already as high as 70%.<\/p>\n

At the same time, British consumers would be denied goods such as Kenyan tea and green beans, or Ghanaian cocoa and fruit. There are no winners in this situation.<\/p>\n

When G20 Trade and Investment Ministers met virtually recently, at the instigation of UK Trade Secretary Liz Truss, they agreed to do everything possible to keep trade flowing across the world and ensure that any necessary emergency measures taken to tackle COVID-19 do not create unnecessary barriers to trade or disruption to global supply chains.<\/p>\n

As encouraging as this sounds, unless these pledges are actually fortified into the global trading system, it is too easy for governments to pledge one thing publicly, only for the policy to be ignored in favour of more protectionist measures driven by domestic public pressures.<\/p>\n

Using its new independent voice at the WTO, the UK should lead a call to action focused on three areas. Around the world, one billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty since 1990, as a direct result of international trade.<\/p>\n

The global trading system that has helped deliver this was already under threat, but since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of safe, free and fair global trade has never been greater. We must act now to keep trade with Africa flowing. Lives depend upon it.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. COVID-19 has now spread to all corners of Africa and, as the rate of infections increase, the continent\u2019s economies are coming to a crashing halt, risking the reversal of two decades of economic progress. Trade has been the heartbeat of Africa\u2019s economic success, with the UK alone importing \u00a312.7bn in goods and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":16483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,8,16],"tags":[242,233,246,245],"class_list":["post-16484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nCoronavirus: We must keep trade with Africa flowing - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"COVID-19 has now spread to all corners of Africa and, as the rate of infections increase, th ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/coronavirus-we-must-keep-trade-with-africa-flowing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coronavirus: We must keep trade with Africa flowing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"COVID-19 has now spread to all corners of Africa and, as the rate of infections increase, th ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/coronavirus-we-must-keep-trade-with-africa-flowing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-24T08:24:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-24T09:24:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/06\/postQueueImg_14-62b582ad9ddff.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"732\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"415\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/coronavirus-we-must-keep-trade-with-africa-flowing#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/coronavirus-we-must-keep-trade-with-africa-flowing\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Coronavirus: We must keep trade with Africa flowing\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-24T08:24:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-24T09:24:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/coronavirus-we-must-keep-trade-with-africa-flowing\"},\"wordCount\":482,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/coronavirus-we-must-keep-trade-with-africa-flowing#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/06\/postQueueImg_14-62b582ad9ddff.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa\",\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/coronavirus-we-must-keep-trade-with-africa-flowing#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/coronavirus-we-must-keep-trade-with-africa-flowing\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/coronavirus-we-must-keep-trade-with-africa-flowing\",\"name\":\"Coronavirus: We must keep trade with Africa flowing - 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