china convenes the second china international import expo (ciie) in shanghai from november 5 to 10. at the expo, chinese president xi jinping said "china will open its door only wider to the world," and outlined five measures china will adopt to promote greater opening, including expanding market access, optimizing rules, improving the business environment, deepening multilateral and bilateral cooperation and jointly building the belt and road initiative.
so what kind of message does this expo deliver? how is it different from the first one? under the circumstance that globalization is likely to face further challenges from unilateralism and protectionism with pressure on the global economy and trade growth, what does china's opening up mean to the world economy?
"the ciie is a brilliant move to show the world that china is open for business, and it's not only the largest exporter of the world but also a very huge importer that the whole world can participate in its tremendous market," said charles tang, chairman of the brazil-china chamber of commerce & industry.
michele geraci, former under-secretary of state from italy's ministry of economic development said that the first ciie was more of a political expo with the blessing of president xi, while the second one shifts its focus more on trying to get more "practical deals."
now so many people are gathering together from so many countries, and they can seize this opportunity to tell the world that they don't just do what people think but also do something else.
he also stressed that there's a misunderstanding that free trade is good at all cost. in his view, free trade is beneficial to a country only under certain assumptions, one of which is full labor mobility.
it's also worth noting the fact that global trade growth is facing downward pressure and the chinese economy is no exception.
john gong, professor at the university of international business and economics believes that there's no doubt that we're heading to a recession, if not already got into one, which creates lots of challenges.
"the world is looking towards china as sort of "local motive" of world economy. china has a huge trade surplus with the united states, something close to 400 billion dollars, but it actually maintains trade deficits with several resource-rich countries, including brazil, australia, canada. in the end, china needs to increase imports, which is good for the chinese economy but also for the world economy," he added.
while tang points out that under the china-u.s. trade war, brazil has a completely different picture. last year, because of the trade war, brazil had the largest surplus in its trade history with china, which is about 29.5 billion dollars, with the trade volume between brazil and china surpassing 100 million dollars for the first time.
so, from brazil's point of view, brazil is exporting a lot more to china because of the trade war. although countries like the united states do have a deficit in its trade relationship with china, many countries in south america, such as argentina and brazil, are enjoying surpluses.
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