Global (Commonwealth) _ The leaders of the Commonwealth pledged to pursue the goal of growing intra-Commonwealth investment and trade to US$2 trillion by 2030. The Commonwealth Connectivity Agenda for Trade and Investment is intended to help achieve this. The Commonwealth Connectivity Agenda provides a forum for nations to share experiences and best practices related to trade, investment, and domestic reform. Members’ trade frictions will be further reduced as a result of this cross-fertilization.
The Commonwealth economic agenda provides a plan to increase resilient commerce throughout the Commonwealth and make it more equitable and sustainable. At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), the Commonwealth Connectivity Agenda (CCA) was adopted with the intention of strengthening trade and investment ties throughout the Commonwealth and with a target of reaching US$2 trillion in intra-Commonwealth commerce by 2030.
The Commonwealth Businesswomen’s Network, the Commonwealth Standards Network, the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, the Intra-Commonwealth SME Association, and pan-Commonwealth collaboration among professional organizations, such as lawyers and architects, are just a few of the initiatives and organizations behind this goal.
Furthermore, the CCA’s Business-to-Business Connectivity Cluster promotes networking and communication between the public and commercial sectors across the Commonwealth.
Although the Commonwealth is not a formal commercial bloc, trade expenses among Commonwealth nations are, on average, 21% less than when trading with non-member nations (Commonwealth Secretariat, 2021). This is due to the fact that member nations profit from practical commonalities, including language, common law, regulatory coherence, corporate practices, and sizable and vibrant expatriate populations.
Each of these elements lowers the cost of commerce between two parties and strengthens Commonwealth trade. After the COVID-19 epidemic, intra-Commonwealth exports have, in fact, recovered remarkably. These exports increased by around $150 billion from the preceding year to an all-time high of US$768 billion in 2021 (Vickers et al., 2022). These exports are predicted to surpass $800 billion in 2022 and $1 trillion by 2026.
International Business
The Heads of Government at the two previous CHOGMs, which took place in Kigali in 2022 and London in 2018, acknowledged the Commonwealth’s potential to foster global growth, create jobs, and exchange best practices to further member development. They reiterated their commitment to free trade in an open, transparent, equitable, and rules-based multilateral trading arrangement, with the World Trade Organization at its center, and emphasized the need of opposing all kinds of protectionism. This is exactly in line with the Commonwealth’s higher objectives. It is still a huge arguable matter that the Commonwealth’s business should be mainly on IB (international business).
Regional interdependence
African Commonwealth nations exhibit signs of regional interdependence. There are two notable regional clusters: Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Tanzania; and (ii) Botswana, Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zambia. Strengthening intra-Commonwealth links and promoting intra-GVC linkages is necessary, as evidenced by the Commonwealth nations’ dependency on industry sectors and their connections to GVCs through non-Commonwealth countries.
Since 2005, the proportion of intra-Commonwealth trade in the overall world commerce of Commonwealth countries has increased. It peaked in 2012 at 19.3% of global trade, but growth was impeded by the global trade slowdown that occurred between 2012 and 2015. The percentage of intra-Commonwealth commerce was constant at about 18% in 2018 and 2019.
Trade within the Commonwealth is driven by emerging Commonwealth nations. As their exports nearly doubled in value during the same period, from US$204 billion to more than $450 billion, developing nations’ export share rose with time, rising from 60% in 2005 to 67% in 2019.8This change is mostly attributable to Asian member nations’ enhanced trade expansion, which raised their intra-Commonwealth contribution to about 53% in 2019.
Intra- Commonwealth Trade
In general, intra-Commonwealth commerce is driven by a small number of big economies, which reflects the worldwide trend. In 2019, the United Kingdom alone constituted almost 40% of the developed economies. Australia held the biggest proportion of the product trade (39%), while the UK dominated services exports (46%). Together, Singapore, India, and Malaysia accounted for 93% of Asia’s exports of goods and services among emerging nations
Economic within the Commonwealth has changed as member nations expand their trading partners both inside and beyond the Commonwealth or strengthen their current economic ties. Several tiny states are among the 24 member nations that had a significant growth in their intra-Commonwealth trade share between 2005 and 2019.
For example, during this time frame, Vanuatu’s exports increased by almost 50% due to intra-Commonwealth trade, mostly with Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Fiji, and Malaysia. There were fewer shares of intra-Commonwealth commerce as a result of other countries’ effective diversification of their trading partners.
The leaders of the Commonwealth have pledged to pursue the goal of boosting intra-Commonwealth investment and trade to US$2 trillion by 2030. The Commonwealth Connectivity Agenda for Trade and Investment is intended to help achieve this. The Commonwealth Connectivity Agenda provides a forum for nations to share experiences and best practices related to trade, investment, and domestic reform. Members’ trade frictions will be further reduced as a result of this cross-fertilization.
After two years, travel restrictions connected to the epidemic have eased, allowing Commonwealth member nations to once more take advantage of face-to-face interactions to discuss and share best practices and lessons learned in a range of development-related fields.
Common goals
In order to achieve the goals of the Commonwealth connection Agenda (CCA), which include increased cross-Commonwealth connection, commerce, and investment, member states can implement such initiatives with the assistance of the Connectivity Grants Program.
At present, the United Nations has classified 45 economies as the least developed nations (LDCs), 14 of which are Commonwealth members.(Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, Zambia, The Gambia, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, United Republic of Tanzania)
At the WTO’s 13th Ministerial Conference, Dr. Jean Chrysostome Ngabitsinze, Minister of Trade and Industry, Rwanda, discussed the significance of intra-Commonwealth trade.
His statement said, “I am proud to draw attention to the fact that trade with the Commonwealth accounts for about a third of our total goods trade.” Rwanda’s own trade in goods with the Commonwealth has increased by 14% yearly since 2017, reaching $2.4 billion.
Globally, people are now dealing with issues such as wars and conflicts, the food and energy crises, climate change and natural catastrophes, pressures related to the cost of living, and development obstacles. It is now much more crucial than ever to create strongholds of predictability and stability as well as international collaboration. Therefore, all eyes are on the Commonwealth nations and other multilateral organizations to show that they are capable of helping to handle these trade and commerce-related issues.
