Chinese vice-premier condemns protectionism as Beijing prepares to counter Donald Trump’s new tariffs threat
Multilateralism will preserve the world economy, says Hu Chunhua at Southeast Asian summit, where other attendees add their support
Chinese Vice-Premier Hu Chunhua has called for a rejection of protectionism, saying unilateral trade policies by some countries pose a “most serious hazard” to the world economy.
His comments in Vietnam on Wednesday comes the trade war worsens between China and the United States, which has been pursuing measures widely regarded as protectionist under President Donald Trump.
Leaders of Southeast Asian nations also voiced their support for multilateral pacts at the World Economic Forum on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Hanoi.
However, Singapore said there was no guarantee that a broad agreement on the world’s biggest trade pact, which the countries have been working on with China, would be signed by the year’s end.
“Some countries’ protectionist and unilateral measures are gravely undermining the rules-based multilateral trading regime, posing a most serious hazard to the world economy,” Hu said in Hanoi.