DDG Yonov Frederick Agah, alongside former Vice-President of The Gambia Fatoumatta Jallow Tambajang, together co-wrote a piece published on Devex titled Don't shut trade down, make it truly inclusive.

In the piece, the pair state:

Amidst the current uncertainty among major global trading partners and subsequent instability in the world’s economy, it may be tempting to think that the international rules-based trading system has failed to deliver on all of its promises.  

The opposite is true, however. It is the system that will enable us to tackle growing sentiments that trade doesn’t benefit poor and rural communities. It is the system that ensures peace and stability worldwide by acting as a bulwark against unilateral actions. It is the system that will save us from our worst impulses toward protectionism and isolationism. This is the time when we must all stand by the global trade system.

It is also a time of great change. According to International Monetary Fund’s latest global gross domestic product forecast, after years of sluggish growth, the global economy is expected to grow by about 3.9 percent this year and the same again next year. This outpaces gains made in the previous decade. 

New technologies are changing the employment landscape at a pace never seen, and we are in the midst of historic revolutions in digital transactions. These revolutions will profoundly impact the world’s poorest people, and depending on how they cope with the digital divide, will either entrench or level existing inequalities

And yet, we’re still a way off that future.

The world's poorest nations, termed least developed countries, still engage in less than 1 percent of global trade despite being home to 13 percent of the world’s population. With only two years remaining, we are falling short of the Sustainable Development Goals’ commitment to double trade in LDCs by 2020.

The full piece is available here