Increases in the world prices of oil and other commodities (in particular food) are, for the countries importing these commodities, a type of compulsory levy or tax in favour of commodity-exporting countries. In other words, it is an unavoidable transfer of income from the households and enterprises of commodity-importing countries to commodity-exporting countries.
This transfer reflects a shift in relative prices at the global level. Neither households nor enterprises can ever make up for this loss of income, therefore efforts to pass the cost on to each other only serve to ultimately aggravate the adverse consequences for all parties involved.