Members of the organised private sector (OPS) have described US President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office as a wakeup call for Nigeria, Africa and the rest of the world to embrace a new order in global trade.
They said it was time for highly dependent countries to look inward and develop their import substitution, promote backward integration in order to break even and become self-sufficient.
Specifically, the private sector group, comprising Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI), and Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), passed a poor judgment on the US President’s first 100 days in office, saying he had disrupted the global economy more than he met it, given the dizzying number of executive orders passed, the extreme volatility caused by his isolationism tariffs, the rapid dismantling of Biden-era rules, and his advancement into the affairs of other nations.
The private sector group members concluded that it almost feels like 100 years have gone by since the 78-yearold’s inauguration on January 20. In addition, the OPS flayed the US President for flouting the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) rules, being the only global regulatory body expected to make tariff regulations in the world.
Speaking in separate interviews with New Telegraph, in Lagos, a former Director-General of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Dr. John Isemede; former Chairman of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Small and Medium scales Enterprise Group (SMEG), Dr. Jon Tudy Kachikwu; MAN Director-General, Segun Ajayi-Kadir, and 20th National President of Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce (NACC), Alhaji Sheriff Balogun, all emphasised the facts that the Trump’s tariff imposed on Nigeria was an opportunity for it to amend its trading decisions by expanding bilateral trade agreements with emerging economies in Asia, Latin America, and other Africa countries, and also bolster intra-African trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.
Speaking on Trump’s non-compliance with the WTO rules, Dr. Isemede explained that: “What is going in the Spanish cardinal has already said he won’t come to Rome for health reasons.
A big uncertainty is whether Cardinal Angelo Becciu, once one of the most powerful cardinals in the Vatican, will be allowed in the Sistine Chapel. Francis in 2020 forced Becciu to resign as head of the Vatican’s saintmaking office and renounce his rights as a cardinal because of allegations of embezzlement and financial fraud.
Becciu denied any wrongdoing but was put on trial in the Vatican criminal court and convicted of financerelated charges in December, 2023. world’s global economy at the moment with the US tariff is not subjected to global trade order, because when Donald Trump was contesting for US elections he told us; America 1, America 1 and America 1 that America First in everything and what he is likely to do.
“However, it is not a crime to introduce new tariffs but the only thing is that you have the world body, which is the WTO, which has the guiding principle. So every country has its own foreign policy. “Every country has its own trade policy. Every country has its own domestic policy.
Every country has its own economic diplomacy and how you are going to engage with each other. “So when you are now talking about engaging tariffs is more or less a tax you impose on what is coming rather than what is going out. So there are three ways of engaging; bilateral, that’s two countries, me and you, Nigeria and Benin Republic.
“When it comes to multilateralism, that’s ECOWAS trade, in which Nigeria is a member. Polateral, which is global, then Europe and other trades, which are based on goods. And what Trump has done, he did not subject anybody to even the WTO because before the WTO could act, he had already gone ahead with the pronouncement of his new tariffs, which is very wrong in global trade.
“So every country that is crying today, is a country that has not prepared for tomorrow. “For instance, a country like Nigeria that is 90 per cent import dependent will be severely affected by the US tariffs because we failed to plan,” the former NACCIMA DG added.
In his assessment, Kachikwu, who is currently based in the United States, said that so thick and so fast have been the announcements from Washington that it has been hard to keep up as his many trade policies have veered into the bizarre, making the president’s first three months in charge even more disorientating. Talking about the financial markets and investment, Kachikwu explained that 100 days of Trump as US president took a swing at the global order.
In almost all areas of finance and particularly in investment banks, upheaval has become the watchword, saying: “Trump’s first 100 days have rattled global markets, with investment banks reeling from tariffs, stalled deal making and deregulation upheaval.” According to him: “So much has happened since Donald Trump returned to the White House at the beginning of the year that it seems inconceivable we are only talking about his first 100 days as US President.”
Specifically, the renowned economist stressed that capital economics forecasts global GDP will be 0.4 per cent lower in two years’ time than in a pre-tariff scenario should the levies on most countries outside China stay at 10 per cent and retaliation by other governments is moderate.
