Two years after the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union, my country Nigeria and her African partners seek a new settlement with Britain: one based on cooperation in fairer – and freer – trade.
The UK and Nigeria share a deep and special partnership. We are champions for peace and security in Africa. We are custodians of the Commonwealth. Yet in recent years our relationship, particularly on trade, has been defined by Britain’s membership of the European Union. It meant being part of attempts to cajole individual African nations into lopsided European bilateral economic partnership agreements. Nigeria rejected such a deal in 2018, as it sought only to prioritise beneficial terms for raw commodities export to Europe while erecting high tariff barriers to goods manufactured and processed in Africa – stunting job creation.
Given that the Commonwealth’s 19 African members collectively produce over half the African continent’s GDP, a UK-Africa deal would, concurrently, cause a revitalisation of intra-Commonwealth trade and with it the club itself – a stated British foreign policy aim.
A deal would enable Britain to practice the free trade it has long preached. It would represent recognition by a G7 economy of the benefits of African unity; that job creation and manufacturing in Africa can be an advantage and not a threat to the western world.
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