Rising protectionism mainly leads to slow world economy
As rising protectionism mainly contributes to sluggish trade growth and the slowdown of the world economy, opposition to protectionism will play a crucial role in advancing global economic growth, experts said Monday.
"It is a very critical situation as we continue to see that since 2008, there has been an increase not only in the number of trade restrictive measures, but also an expansion of the type of measures countries have taken," Ricardo Melendez-Ortiz, co-founding chief executive of the International Center for Trade and Sustainable Development, told the Global Times on Monday on the sidelines of the Workshop on G20 Trade and Investment Outcomes held in Beijing.
Between October 2015 and May this year, the average monthly number of trade restrictions taken by various countries was about 22, compared with 15 before the global financial crisis, he said. He also noted that there is a lot more that the G20 has to do as its members conduct 80 percent of world trade and 50 percent or more of global foreign direct investment.
"We hope G20 ministries will go further in recognizing the relationship between trade and investment," he said.
The G20 Trade Ministers Meeting, held from July 9 to 10 in Shanghai, has yielded a joint statement encompassing G20 trade and investment mechanisms, trade growth strategies, support for the WTO, investment policy cooperation and coordination measures, and inclusive and coordinated global value chains.
It was the first consensus statement in the history of the G20, with some tangible outcomes on trade and investment policy cooperation.
The joint statement will be a milestone for world trade growth in the coming years and also a contribution to the G20 summit, which is scheduled to be held from September 4 to 5 in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, Huo Jianguo, vice chairman of the China Society for WTO Studies, told the Global Times on Monday.
The statement provides clear guides for globalization and the promotion of a multilateral investment framework, which is expected to be advanced at the Hangzhou summit, Huo forecast.
The G20 summit in Hangzhou will further achieve consensus, set up basic principles on opposition to trade protectionism and highlight efforts to promote global trade growth, according to Zhang Yuyan, director-general of the Institute of World Economics and Politics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Zhang said Monday on the sidelines of the workshop that the final implementation will depend on the role that international institutions play in the world trade and investment sectors. "Each country may possibly adjust its policies to overcome obstacles from interest groups based on achieved principles," he said.
