According to a recent report by the International Monetary Fund, the current threats made by the US to its trading partners risk lowering global growth by as much as 0.5 percent by 2020, or about 430 billion US dollars in lost GDP worldwide.

“We need to look into two angles — one is the integration of this trade, and the second is the international monetary system independence,” said Khan Afzal Hadawal, former first deputy Governor of Da Afghanistan Bank (The Afghan Central Bank) in an interview on CGTN’s The Point. 

Hadawal said that it is very difficult for developing countries to make their own independent economic policies. Because developing economies are reliant on big economies, they are obliged to accept global trade regulations even if they will suffer in the end. However, to some extent, locally or domestically, they can make independent decisions regarding their economic strategies.

“Particularly those developing countries who need imports and have to settle their accounts in US currency, such as Afghanistan. They need to follow the US policies,” Hadawal added.

The former deputy governor of Afghanistan's central bank said although the USD is dominant in the world financial market, developing countries can be given alternative options like having an alternative mechanism for clearing their accounts. 

Hadawal opined, “Less developed countries can give little independence to their monetary policies. And the developed countries in this region come up with developing facilities such as offering funded and non-funded facilities on a swap basis to their respective trade partners, and in this way they will not be totally dependent on other currency for clearing the settlements of the trade in their business community.”