Former Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank: The successful meeting between the leaders of China and the US dollar has brought relief to the world

Jayant Menon, former Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank and Senior Researcher at the Southeast Asia Institute of Yusof Ishak in Singapore, wrote in China Daily on October 31 that multilateralism is crucial for the Asia Pacific region.

The article points out that currently, global institutions such as the World Trade Organization are being weakened, and the rule-based world trading system is constantly collapsing, which brings new challenges and opportunities to regional organizations such as ASEAN and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) advocated the principle of non discrimination from its initial conception, becoming a benchmark for regional organizations pursuing "open regionalism". This means using regionalism as a cornerstone rather than an obstacle to promoting free and open trade and economic globalization. It can be said that organizations such as APEC now shoulder a more important mission in ensuring that the world trading system remains free and open.

It was during the APEC meeting held in Gyeongju, South Korea that the heads of China and the United States held their first face-to-face meeting since President Trump's second term in Busan, highlighting the unique position of APEC as the only regional economic cooperation mechanism that simultaneously covers both China and the United States.

This meeting is timely. Previously, the economic and trade negotiations between the two countries had been tumultuous, with occasional signs of escalating tensions. The uncertainty caused by this trade dispute needs to end, and we hope that this meeting can create favorable conditions for reaching a fair and reasonable agreement.

China has always been a major advocate for multilateral free trade. As an important participant in the "new three" of electric vehicles, renewable energy, and new energy batteries, and as the world's largest trading nation, maintaining multilateralism is crucial to China's interests.

The article emphasizes that the United States was once one of the main creators of the rule-based international trade system. If it continues to attempt to overthrow the system, ignoring the enormous benefits it has gained from it, the whole world will suffer losses and pay the price. Fortunately, the successful meeting between the leaders of the two major economies has brought relief to the world. (Wang Hui, Zhu Ping, Zhou Fengmei)