TRADE RELATIONS05/02/22
Trade relations is a universal concept and entity with global citizenship. It represents everyone irrespective of difference.
According to me, a major principle of Social Relations is autonomy. A nation is free and independent to exercise its sovereign will in determining policies suitable for own need. Each nation places values on mechanisms of trade such as law, business, political culture; to attract and secure a deal.
As nations approach the global market, they find favourable terms and similarities with other nations form trade relations.
The nation's autonomy and freedom to trade independently sanctions its system or mechanisms of approach moral and legal status. They enter into a contract with other nations subject to moral and legal agreement.
That's it, local nationalist commentators would say before the election, it's done and dusted!
However, we experience in real life a different reality. The rich nations take advantage of their wealth to attract other nations in support for example; for a foreign policy in the global stage and in return for a trade agreement. The systems of approach are no longer sanctioned by moral and legal laws, but nullified by political opportunism.
In fact, some powerful nations would dictate the terms of relations with or without trade agreements. Tied by tribal and nationalism association, allied nations have no sovereign choice but succumb and follow.
At the same time, advanced nations would form trade agreements only with other advanced nations. And the poor nations have no sovereign choice but succumb and be left behind.
Thus trade relations have polarised the global market into nationalistic regions. When these trade relations are filtered down to local levels, our diverse set up is engaged in tensions between ethnicity, beliefs, gender and sex-orientation.
This must account for the qualities of a leader to be able to dictate authority over others. And we have seen enough dictators in our time.
We have witnessed over time that for a nation to dictate the terms of relations upon others not only attracts harsh critics but also of the violent kind.
I'm not really sure what role the WTO plays other than influence in favour of rich nations. The status quo is pro authoritarian anti progressive. If it should play a moral or legal role, then WTO should be independent of influencing political decisions.
As an institution for peace, it could navigate trade for development and utilising mechanisms of trade to attempt at resolving Poverty, inequality /equity, discrimination, violence and crime. Instead, it seems to be an agent for the rich nations.
WTO watches from the side line as rich and powerful nations use trade and mechanisms of trade as weapons turning trade relations into trade war. And the world war call upon allies to sever trade relations with adversarial regions. And trade relations lose its moral and legal mandate in the world war of the global market.
The global market used to be a showground for innovation and development to generate supply and demand of the global economy. But for now, the global market is descending into something dark and uncertain!
Tariffs and sanctions are seen as mechanisms applied for a nation's security, but recently have been used to ban imports from another country. And the tit for tat established a domino effect on the price of goods and services for global consumers.
As a result, the rise in the cost of building materials became too much for local builders; the housing project is delayed further. The local government must borrow more to house the homeless as builders lose their jobs and queue up for a food parcel.
Nationalist and allied nations form various pacts to oppose competitor nations. They accused their adversary with human rights violation.
Yet, the very nature of authoritarian trade relations adds further hardship to the harsh reality of homelessness and Poverty. What about the rights of these sovereign citizens to be autonomous and enjoy the results of their own choices?
From this end, those people up there making those decisions are careless and have no consideration of folks at the bottom of the heap. The world if they didn't know is closely linked in trade relations. While they accuse others of human rights violation, they themselves are in fact violating our human and natural rights to national sovereignty.
The world is not only closely tied in trade relations, but human has interrelated in diverse relations of all ethnic kinds. The very adversary of one's nation is his/her own kind. With that fact, statements such as what is good for one's country is good for all countries.