'Implications of U.S. Foreign Aid Cuts and Reciprocal Tariffs for African Countries - A View from the Global South' - Prof Olabisi D Akinkugbe, University of Dalhousie

'Implications of U.S. Foreign Aid Cuts and Reciprocal Tariffs for African Countries - A View from the Global South' - Prof Olabisi D Akinkugbe, University of Dalhousie

From Public Lectures from the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge by Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge

May 1, 2026 · 38 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the implications of U.S. foreign aid cuts and reciprocal tariffs on African countries from the perspective of the Global South.

Lecture summary: President Trump’s decisive attack on foreign aid and USAID, leading to the restructuring of the latter and the closure of ongoing and future development aid work across the world, has left many vulnerable regions of the world in potential crisis. With some of the funds hitherto allocated to development aid in vulnerable Global South countries reallocated to national economic projects or redirected to support programs that deepen U.S. foreign policy objectives of America First abroad, one thing is clear: economic nationalism, power-based relations, and opposition to the rules-based order is back. Calculated, unfair, and transactional politics is the name of the game for President Trump’s return to office so far. Whether it is in relation to a developed, developing, or least-developed country, the Trump administration has unapologetically proven that it does not care whose ox is gored. Despite the US Supreme Court ruling, the “Reciprocal Tariff Policy” has disrupted and entrenched the uncertainty in the multilateral trading system that was already confronted with crisis about its own existence, especially the World Trade Organization, and the resulting…

People in this episode

Guest: Prof Olabisi D Akinkugbe

Topics covered

  • U.S. foreign aid
  • economic nationalism
  • international trade
  • Global South
  • Reciprocal Tariff Policy
  • development aid

Keywords

  • foreign aid
  • U.S. policy
  • economic crisis
  • development
  • tariffs
  • international relations
  • trade policy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Dalhousie, USAID

Places: United States, Global South, World Trade Organization, Trump administration

More episodes of Public Lectures from the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Public Lectures from the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge podcast page.