Global economy needs free trade
‘China and UK must stand together in the face of rampant protectionism around the world’
“CHINA and the UK must adhere to free trade in the face of rampant protectionism around the world”, said Liu Xiaoming, China’s ambassador to the UK, during a speech in London. This is according to the China Daily last week.
Unilateralism was on the rise, protectionism was rampant, populism was spreading, uncertainties and destabilising factors were increasing, he said. “Trade protectionism is becoming a weapon in the hands of a certain country to provoke trade disputes that put the global economy at risk”, he warned. This is against the background of the Group of Seven meeting this past weekend and the US imposing trade barriers on its partners.
Canada and Mexico were also subjected to the new tariffs.
In contrast, China’s President Xi Jinping said that China and Kazakhstan should enhance the connection of their development strategies and boost co-operation in such areas as economy, trade, energy and finance
Lothar Hermann, the chief executive of Siemens Greater China, supported international collaboration during a media address earlier last week at the first Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Summit held in Beijing to “Connect, Create, Collaborate”.
“By connecting multiple stakeholders of BRI, by providing innovative and digital technologies and by working closely together with our Chinese partners, we continue to support successful, open and fair international collaboration,” he said. Siemens has been joining forces with more than 100 leading Chinese Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPCs) in more than 100 countries and regions for more than two decades.
Siemens helped China Tianchen Engineering to land the biggest order ever won by a Chinese company in Turkey to build one of the worlds largest soda ash factories. This project promoted Turkish exports and created around 2 000 local jobs.
Furthermore, “Siemens supported China Machinery Engineering Corporation to enter the world’s most advanced gas power market, by winning the first H-class gas power plant EPC project, Punjab Power Plant Jhang, in Pakistan. The new power plant will be capable of providing an amount of electricity that is equivalent to the total consumption of about four million Pakistani households,” said Joe Kaeser, the president and chief executive of Siemens last week, addressing global leaders at the BRI Summit in Beijing.