China's UN representative defends multilateral trading

Ma Zhaoxu, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, said unilateralism, isolationism and protectionism threaten the multilateral trading system.

Ma spoke at a high-level symposium themed "Strengthening Multilateralism and Multilateral Trading System in the Age of Globalization" on Friday morning at UN headquarters in New York. The symposium was jointly hosted by the Chinese Permanent Mission to the UN and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Ma said that nowadays, the world economy is recovering, but its foundation is not solid.

"Meanwhile, unilateralism, isolationism and trade protectionism are on the rise, dealing a heavy blow to multilateralism and the multilateral trading system while adding to the instabilities and uncertainties of the global economy," Ma said.

He emphasized that trade, a crucial engine of world economic growth, has a vital role to play in economic globalization and the implementation of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

"To safeguard a rules-based, universal, open, transparent, predictable, inclusive, non- discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system under the World Trade Organization is an earnest practice to support multilateralism and an important guarantee for global economic growth," he said. "China has always been actively promoting multilateralism and firmly upholding the multilateral trading system and its rules."

He called for the international community to jointly build an open world economy.

Ma said that since China's accession to the WTO in 2001, it has honored commitments across the board, made all its WTO concessions and opened its doors wider.

"In terms of trade in goods, China has fulfilled all of its tariff -reduction commitments, lowering its overall tariff level from 15.3 percent to 9.8 percent," Ma said.

In recent years, China has further reduced import duties on some commodities.

"China has opened up nearly 120 service sectors categorized by the WTO, exceeding the 100 sectors promised at its accession and approaching the average levels of developed countries," Ma said.

In an active response to the WTO's Aid for Trade initiative, China has helped other developing countries, especially the least developed ones.

"Since the international financial crisis in 2008, China has contributed over 30 percent of global growth every year on average. In 2017, China contributed around 34 percent of global growth and accounted for 15 percent of the world economic aggregate," he said.

And in the coming five years, "China is expected to import $8 trillion of goods, attract $600 billion of foreign investment and make $750 billion of outbound investment," Ma added.

Five years ago, China put forward the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and more than 80 countries and international organizations have since signed cooperation agreements with China, "which is a concrete result of multilateralism", Ma said.

He said China is ready to work with all countries to make the BRI the broadest platform for international cooperation, "in keeping with the trend of economic globalization and to the greater benefit of all our peoples".

Liu Zhenmin, UN undersecretary- general for economic and social affairs, said that globalization brings many positive forces for growth and sustainable development, but also comes with challenges and risks.

Liu believes that countries on their own cannot effectively address the challenges presented by the interconnected nature of the global economy.

"Global challenges require multilateral solutions," he said, which include trade, investment, technology, jobs, international tax cooperation, migration and climate change.