Business leaders express support for free trade at Boao

The closing press conference of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2018 is held in Boao, south China's Hainan Province, April 11, 2018. [Photo: Xinhua/Yang Guanyu]

Business leaders have shared their views on free trade at the Boao Forum for Asia, where trade tensions between China and the US continue to come under the spotlight.

Our reporter Yang Chengxi has more:

Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed strong opposition to protectionism, and reaffirmed China's support for free trade at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum. That commitment to globalization is a sentiment shared by many companies here.

David Cruickshank, Global Chairman of financial services firm Deloitte has this to say:

"The lower trade barriers are, the more companies trade, the better off everybody is, companies and citizens."

For the past decade, China continued to pivot from trade-propelled growth towards domestic consumption. Chinese officials have downplayed the impact of the proposed US tariffs on China, and maintained the country's growth rate projection.

David Cruickshank says:

"The Chinese economy is opening up. Structural reform continues and President Xi Jinping made that clear. Obviously, there is a lot of debate about some of the trade issues at the moment, but I think the long-term trajectory I see is still being very positive. And China's role in the world is still very positive."

According to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, from 2010 to 2015, the Chinese market made up a third of all sales revenue growth for US companies' overseas branches. For those American firms that have deep roots in China, a good economic relationship between China and the US is important.

Zhang Jiantao, Vice President of Coca-Cola Greater China, South Korea and Mongolia says this:

"Trade is all about globalization. I haven't seen anybody who can fix a trade problem through disputes, through a trade war. So, we definitely as a business look forward to seeing how we can mitigate that and find a way out."

In one of the discussion sessions on Tuesday, participants talked about the structural challenges to the US economy. Some say protectionism measures cannot fix the USA's problems. It's the wrong prescription for the economy's chronic symptoms.

For CRI, this is Yang Chengxi, Boao, Hainan Province.