No single development in human history has done more to expand wealth, opportunity, and life expectancy than the growth of global trade.
When people, cities, and nations began specialising and exchanging goods and services at scale, three powerful things happened:
Productivity exploded – each place could focus on what it did best.
Innovation spread quickly – technologies, ideas, and institutions moved with people and products.
Living standards improved – over time, more people could access more goods, knowledge, and services at lower cost.
This has not just been about buying and selling. It has been about sharing and benchmarking:
Political and economic ideologies
Social norms and labour standards
Technological advances
Legal and regulatory systems
Environmental protection practices
The result is clear in the data: while the world is far from equal, humanity as a whole is richer, healthier, and better educated than at any point in history.
The Dark Side: When Trade Was Built on Exploitation
We cannot talk honestly about global trade without naming its shameful chapters.
Certain regions – in particular, parts of Europe and North America – accelerated their development through slavery, imperialism, racism, and systematic extraction:
Millions of Africans were enslaved and transported to build wealth elsewhere.
Colonies were structured as suppliers of raw materials and captive markets for finished goods.
Racist ideologies and discriminatory laws kept many populations out of higher-value activities.
Corruption, both domestic and foreign-driven, distorted decisions and drained resources.
These are not minor footnotes. They are central to understanding today’s persistent inequalities between the Global North and the Global South.
Yet the answer to this history is not to abandon global trade.
The answer is to transform it:
From extraction to partnership
From secrecy to transparency
From one-sided advantage to shared prosperity
A Dangerous Turn: The New Protectionism
Against this backdrop, it is deeply troubling that we are seeing a resurgence of protectionism, seclusion, and exclusion.
This takes many forms:
Tariffs: Taxes on imports, often justified as “protecting local industries” but frequently used to score political points.
Non-tariff barriers: Complex standards, quotas, rules-of-origin, and regulations that quietly shut others out.
Subsidy wars: Rich countries heavily subsidising their own industries, making it almost impossible for poorer nations to compete fairly.
Digital barriers: Data localisation rules, platform access restrictions, and “walled gardens” that limit participation in the digital economy.
Migration and visa restrictions: Blocking the movement of people – and with them, skills, ideas, and entrepreneurship.
These measures are often sold as “protecting our jobs” or “building resilience”. In reality, they frequently:
Lock in inefficient industries at home
Raise costs for consumers and businesses
Slow innovation by cutting off healthy competition
And, crucially, undermine the ability of the Global South to catch up
When powerful countries or blocs deliberately design policies that shrink opportunities for others, the consequences are not abstract. They mean:
Fewer factories, farms, and service businesses growing in poorer countries
Fewer jobs and lower incomes for young people who are entering the labour market in massive numbers
Less fiscal space for governments to invest in health, education, and infrastructure
In a world as interconnected as ours, fighting global socio-economic progress is not just short-sighted economic policy; it is morally indefensible.
When such strategies and policies are pursued knowingly, with full awareness that they will entrench poverty and inequality, they are a crime against humanity.
Why Open, Fair Trade Matters So Much for the Global South
The countries that have made the fastest and most sustained progress out of poverty in recent decades did not do it by closing their doors.
They did it by:
Connecting to global markets
Attracting investment and technology
Moving up value chains – from agriculture to agro-processing, from assembly to design, from raw materials to finished products and services.
East and Southeast Asia are the clearest examples. But the same principles apply to Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and the Middle East.
For the Global South, fair access to global markets is not a luxury. It is:
The difference between processing your own cocoa and exporting finished chocolate – or staying stuck exporting raw beans.
The difference between being a “source of minerals” and being a centre for battery and green technology manufacturing.
The difference between exporting nurses and engineers – and building world-class hospitals and innovation hubs at home.
When protectionist walls go up in the Global North, or even within the Global South itself, they choke off this path to shared prosperity.
Africa’s Moment – If the Doors Stay Open
Africa illustrates both the promise and the risk.
On the one hand:
A young, growing population
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) – the world’s largest free trade area by number of countries
Rapid adoption of digital technologies
Vast opportunities in energy, agriculture, manufacturing, and services
On the other hand:
Fragmented markets and infrastructure
Heavy dependence on commodity exports
Limited voice in setting global trade rules
A world drifting towards economic nationalism, just as Africa is poised to scale
For Africa – and much of the Global South – what is needed is not isolation, but:
Deeper regional integration
Making AfCFTA real: harmonising standards, simplifying customs, investing in cross-border infrastructure.
Value addition at home
Moving from exporting raw materials to building competitive industries.
Fairer global rules
Pushing for trade and investment regimes that recognise history and current asymmetries.
Domestic reforms
Tackling corruption, strengthening institutions, and improving the business environment so that global and regional trade actually benefits citizens.
But even the most courageous reforms at home will struggle if large parts of the world choose a path of protectionism and exclusion.
What Needs to Change – And Who Must Act
If we accept that global trade has been the single most significant driver of human wealth creation, then deliberately sabotaging it is an attack on collective progress.
So what does a more responsible path look like?
For Governments in the Global North
Recognise that industrial policy and strategic autonomy cannot become excuses for locking out poorer countries.
Design climate and industrial subsidies in ways that include and partner with the Global South, rather than simply reshoring everything.
Support reforms to global institutions (like the WTO, multilateral development banks) that give the Global South a real voice.
For Governments in the Global South
Use regional trade agreements to build bigger, more efficient home markets.
Prioritise investments in infrastructure, education, and governance that make participation in global value chains possible.
Take a firm, united stance in global negotiations against rules that entrench marginalisation.
For Businesses and Investors
Look beyond short-term protection and think in terms of long-term, shared value.
Build supply chains that are both resilient and inclusive – not just ticking ESG boxes, but genuinely building capacity in partner countries.
Use your voice to push back against policies that may look good on a single balance sheet but are destructive at a global level.
For Citizens and Civil Society
Question narratives that blame foreigners or trade for every domestic problem.
Hold leaders accountable when they pursue policies that make your country feel powerful in the short term but weaker and poorer in the long run.
Support movements and coalitions that argue for fair, open, and responsible trade, not a retreat into narrow nationalism.
The story of human progress is, in large part, the story of learning to exchange – fairly, peacefully, and at scale.
Trade has never been perfect. It has been used for both liberation and oppression.
But to respond to its past abuses by shutting doors, raising walls, and hoarding opportunity is to punish future generations for yesterday’s sins. It denies billions of people in the Global South the tools they need to stand as equals in the global economy.
When leaders knowingly pursue strategies, policies, and practices that undermine global socio-economic progress, entrench inequality, and block entire regions from development, they are not just making a policy error.
They are committing a profound moral wrong – one that history may well judge as a crime against humanity’s shared future.
The choice before us is simple, even if the politics are not:
A world of open, fair, and inclusive trade, where every region has a real chance to prosper.
Or a world of fragmented blocs and guarded markets, where fear and short-term advantage trap billions in permanent second-class status.
For the sake of a truly sovereign Africa and a more equitable global order, we cannot afford to choose the latter.
Please share your thoughts with us.
LECHA | So Much Better