Conflict between the world’s top economic powers threatens smaller and less developed countries, according to South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor.
“The world’s most powerful economies are engaged in a fractious trade conflict that threatens all of the world’s smaller economies,” she said in a budget speech to parliament on Wednesday. “The poor and marginalised face the greatest threat because their plight is overlooked while the powerful fight.”
“This is not the world that many hoped for when the Cold War ended,” she continued.
Following interest rate hikes, the value of the US currency has risen, making it more difficult for emerging economies to settle trade bills or pay their obligations. Pandor told Bloomberg earlier this week that, given the unequal playing field and the economic uncertainties produced by Washington’s trade war with China and sanctions on Russia, the BRICS countries and other countries are questioning why they are “committed to trading through the dollar.”
The BRICS group would “properly discuss” the introduction of a unified currency at its 15th annual summit next month in South Africa, she said.
