President John Dramani Mahama has cautioned that the United States’ decision to reduce international aid could have significant unintended consequences, including direct economic harm to American farmers and a substantial weakening of US global influence.
In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Mahama emphasized that American aid policies have long served as strategic tools for maintaining US soft power and influence across developing nations.
“America has the right to recalibrate and freeze its international assistance to other countries, but there’s always a blowback,” Mahama warned. “America loses soft power because USAID is a well-known brand of America, and it intervenes in very critical areas.“
Mahama, who just stepped into his second term as Ghana’s president, highlighted two specific consequences that could result from US aid reductions.
First, he noted that other nations would likely step in to fill the void left by America’s retreat.
“If America decides that it doesn’t want to intervene in those areas, it is possible that other countries might decide to fill that gap, or we might fill it ourselves, like we’re trying to do now, adjusting our budgets to fill the gap that America leaves,” he explained. “But it loses the influence that it has exerted over the years.“
Second, and perhaps more surprising, Mahama pointed to the direct economic impact on American agricultural producers, who have long benefited from US food aid programs.
“USAID is the biggest supplier of food aid in many places, and they buy this food aid from American farmers,” Mahama stated. “So if USAID is no longer buying that food to deliver as food aid, then it means that American farmers lose a huge demand that assisted them in their business. So there’s always a blowback.“
READ ALSO: Prez Mahama to IMF, World Bank: ‘Stay out of Ghana’s anti-LGBTQ debate’
Mahama suggested that these shifts in US international engagement could accelerate broader geopolitical changes and potentially catalyse a restructuring of global power relationships.
“The Trump playbook is still playing out,” he observed. “Disruptions lead to new world orders, and so this is a disruption that is happening. I’m sure that maybe a new world order will be born out of it.”
Prez Mahama emphasized that global interconnectedness means isolationist policies will inevitably have ripple effects. “I think that the world order that came in place after the Second World War has been beneficial to all parties. America has benefited, America has prospered from that world order and I do think that no country can exist in isolation,” Mahama said.
His warning comes as Ghana and other African nations prepare contingency plans to adjust their budgets and seek alternative partnerships in response to anticipated reductions in American assistance, potentially opening doors to increased influence from other global powers in the region.
Source:
3news.com
Source link
