President John Dramani Mahama has called for countries sharing common values to form new trading partnerships, warning that unilateral tariffs imposed by some nations are undermining the rules-based international trading system built over decades.
The President said this when the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Edward visited the presidency on Tuesday.
He stated that countries can no longer rely on the multilateral global order established after World War II, as recent actions threaten its foundations.
“Countries wake up in the morning and impose tariffs on anybody else. I think that it is upending the rules-based trading system that we all have nurtured for years,” the President said.
President Mahama proposed what he described as a “coalition of the willing” – partnerships between countries committed to working together rather than acting individually.
“At a time like this it becomes a coalition of the willing. We must develop new partnerships that allow us to continue to work together not as individual countries but as coalitions of the willing,” he stated.
He positioned the United Kingdom as Ghana’s natural partner for such arrangements, citing the two nations’ shared history and values.
“No better country to be a partner to than the United Kingdom which has been a historical partner to Ghana since our independence,” President Mahama said.
He emphasized that multilateral cooperation remains necessary for addressing global challenges like climate change, which no single country can tackle alone.
Richard Aniagyei, ISD
