Barbados urges leaders to look to Africa as Trump trade wars worsen

Barbados prime minister and Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom) chair Mia Mottley has urged her island nation counterparts to strengthen ties with Africa to protect their economies from the impact of president Donald Trump’s trade wars.

Her rallying cry comes in the wake of a slump in global markets and China hitting back with tit-for-tat levies of 34%.

Trump has, in the meantime, warned that he would fire back with an additional 50% tariff if Beijing does not back down.

In a statement published by News Source Guyana, Mottley cautions that lowering tariffs to zero in Caricom will not make a difference, because their economies are small and vulnerable

“We must build our ties with Africa, Central and Latin America, and renew those ties with some of our older partners around the world, in the United Kingdom and Europe, and in Canada. We must not rely solely on one or two markets. We need to be able to sell our Caribbean goods to a wider, more stable global market,” she says.

She has also warned that the world is faced with a crisis and that island nations must stand united.

“I will not sugarcoat it. These are among the most challenging of times for our region since the majority of our members gained their independence. Indeed, it is the most difficult period our world has faced since the end of World War II, 80 years ago.”

“Our planet faces a climate catastrophe that worsens every year. We have a cost-of-living crisis that has been bedeviling us since the disruption of supply chains, when the Covid-19 pandemic triggered the shutdown of the majority of countries,” she says.