Nigeria, Aug. 17 -- Following decades of liberalisation, the global trade-and-investment regime is undergoing a structural recalibration. Major economies are increasingly deploying targeted protectionist measures and "economic-security" controls to shield critical industries and supply chains, even as Bretton Woods institutions continue to promote openness as the optimal long-term growth strategy. This coexistence of competing logics, pragmatic state intervention alongside multilateral advocacy for openness, has generated policy uncertainty and pushed compliance costs higher for firms.

For Africa, these shifts carry mixed implications. On one hand, heightened competition among major economies for strategic minerals, agricultural products...