On September 16, Mr. Frank Ning, Board Chairman of Sinochem Group, took part in China Development Forum Special Session 2018 in Beijing. He delivered a speech on the topic of Challenges and Future of Global Trade System.
In the face of challenges to the international trade system, represented by U.S.-China trade war, Mr. Frank Ning used examples to explain the operation model of soybean trade and related industry chain. He further pointed out that the global economic, trade and investment activities are actually an integrated and cycling chain that cannot be separated or stopped. The trade conflicts might change the flow direction of raw materials, parts, products, capital and other elements along the chain, but the development and flow of global trade and investment will not be halted by these trade conflicts. He believed that the world needs time to adapt to current challenges of global trade system. There might be higher cost in the initial period of transformation. If the trade conflicts are continued, the trade flow and its direction will be changed gradually.
In addition, Mr. Frank Ning particularly pointed out that China’s economy had been growing robustly for 40 years ever since the reform and opening-up, and Chinese people are now living with much better conditions than before. All these are attributed to the political and economic system that fits the real conditions of China. He stressed the necessity of further deepening the reform, which is now the common view in China’s society. But China is large in size and huge in population, making it necessary to make trade-offs among many problems and take care of multiple parties’ benefits. Therefore, the reform in China will be progressing step by step.