Commonwealth Roots for Free and Open Global Trade
By Khalifa Hemed
Published March 11, 2019
Promoting inclusive trade is crucial to economic prosperity.
Patricia Jane Scotland, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, says inclusive, fair and open rules-based multilateral trading system drives growth, productivity,
innovation and employment.
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She was speaking at the 2019 Asia Trade Summit in Hong Kong that brought together trade negotiators, business leaders, ministers, academics and economists for the advancement of global trade, Scotland said the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) had in 2018 ‘raised concerns about the risks of protectionism to the global economy and underlined the importance of resisting all forms of protectionism’ that will not only help ‘increase intra-Commonwealth trade to US$2 trillion by 2030’ but also foster greater cooperation among Commonwealth member countries.
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Scotland called upon multinational companies to help in ensuring that protectionism does not prevail through engagement with governments to ‘press for free
and open trade which supports inclusive economic growth and prosperity.’
Saying investing in human capital is key to economic growth in this age of digitisation, Secretary-General Scotland said this will ensure the benefits of economic boom are distributed equitably.
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“The quality and quantity of education have powerful effects on the distribution of income and on economic growth for everyone. A lack of investment in human
capital leads to productivity losses in future which constrains the growth and economic transformation of a country,” Scotland stressed.
Baroness Patricia Scotland, a Dominican lawyer elected in November 2015 as the first female and the sixth Commonwealth Secretary-General, also called for greater integration of small states in the global trading landscape.
The Commonwealth Secretariat reports that doing business among the 53 Commonwealth member countries of 2.4 billion people is ’19 per cent cheaper than with other countries’ due to ‘historical ties, long established trading relations, similarities in legal structures and a common language’.
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