Vice President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo on Friday criticised what he described as the double standards in the global economic system, warning that developing countries like Guyana are being constrained by international financial and trade policies.
Speaking at a youth engagement forum hosted by the University of Guyana Economic Society under the theme “Building a Sustainable and Inclusive Economy”, Dr Jagdeo urged young economists to adopt long-term perspectives and bold, unconventional strategies to help transform the national economy.
“We’ve seen a lot of decorative statements from international forums. I think it has become an industry for these international groups — particularly the UN and its allied agencies — to come up with reports and lofty goals for what we should aspire to. But what they don’t do is provide countries with the resources to achieve those goals, and they do absolutely nothing to change the international policies needed to make them possible,” he said.
Dr Jagdeo, a trained economist, said the global economic playing field remains unbalanced. He argued that the international trading system has evolved in favour of powerful countries, leaving smaller economies at a disadvantage.
“So, for you to achieve those goals, you have to have an enabling environment. If you examine the world trading system — from the GATT days [referring to the period when international trade was governed by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, a 1947 pact to reduce trade barriers]
all the way to the WTO (World Trade Organisation) — you’ll see that it has always stood heavily in favour of the developed world. It has evolved from a time when there was special and differential treatment for small countries based on size, to now requiring almost full reciprocity in international trade,” he said.
He also criticised multilateral financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, for emphasising austerity at the expense of development.
“So clearly, there is room for preferences that do not distort global trade, because they’re so tiny in terms of volume as a percentage of global trade — but they’re important for the developing world. Similarly, if you look at the world’s financial system, you will look at the resource flows — the IMF, and the World Bank, and multilateral agencies — they have a structural adjustment policy that often focuses more on stabilisation rather than growth. And if you look at the record of their involvement across the world, you will see there is a mixed record, but they are more associated with imposing hardships on countries rather than focusing on development, because their policy prescriptions are designed mainly to achieve balances either on the trade side or the fiscal side,” he said.
Jagdeo also challenged students to critically examine conventional economic approaches and to understand the long-term impacts of poor decision-making.
“Bad policies lead to consequences. They have short-term consequences and long-term consequences. And if you don’t have a long enough horizon in analysing policy, you get a ton of confusion… In the long run, it moves back to equilibrium… but in the short run, everything is dependent on the nominal exchange rate. And we are dealing with the short run now,” he said.
Jagdeo’s comments sparked vibrant discussions among the Economic Society’s members. He urged them to think beyond traditional frameworks: to think big — and differently.
