Xinhua International Time Review: Free Trade Cooperation "Little Orgasm" Highlights the Trend of the Times

When overbearing unilateralism and protectionism disrupted the global trade order, another voice echoed each other: in the near future, free trade negotiations in Africa, the European Union, Latin America, and Asia have made breakthroughs. This shows that free trade and multilateralism are still the mainstream of the world, and human beings from the occlusion to the open are an irresistible trend of the times.

On July 7, the African Union held a summit to announce the official launch of the African Free Trade Area. As of now, 54 of the 55 member states of the AU have signed the agreement. This means that a market covering 1.2 billion people and 2.5 trillion US dollars of GDP will soon be formed. Highly integrated market resources and huge demographic dividends will have a significant integration effect, and promoting a self-improving Africa will become a hope. The continent.

In South America, the Southern Common Market, initiated by Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, reached an agreement on the signing of a free trade agreement on June 28 after nearly 20 years of arduous negotiations with the European Union. The two sides will build a huge market covering nearly 780 million consumers through measures such as reducing tariffs and expanding market access, bringing strong growth to the agricultural products of the Southern Communist Party and the export of industrial products of the European Union. In the words of President of the European Commission Juncker, this is a strong support for the global "open, fair, sustainable and rule-based trade."

Also in Latin America, the Pacific Alliance, initiated by Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile, held a summit in Lima on July 6 to reinvigorate Latin American economic integration. The four countries pledged to continue to promote free trade, deepen regional economic integration, and maintain the multilateral trading system. It is worth mentioning that the parties also decided to establish a consultation mechanism with APEC to strengthen trade cooperation with other regional organizations and reflect the open and transparent concept of regional free trade cooperation, which is especially precious in the present.

In Asia, regional free trade cooperation has also made new progress. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) initiated by the 10 ASEAN countries has recently completed the 26th round of negotiations and entered a critical phase. In late July, the 27th round of negotiations will be held in China and a ministerial meeting will be held in Beijing in early August. At present, the parties are stepping up consultations. The Chinese side is also actively playing the role of "promoting talks, promoting cooperation, and facilitating", with a view to promoting the Beijing Conference to achieve positive results and preparing for the end of the year.

At present, the global trade environment continues to deteriorate under the impact of unilateral protectionism in a few countries. The breakthrough in the free trade cooperation or the acceleration of the process has at least transmitted two signals: First, unilateralism and protectionism have invaded the economies of various countries, and all parties have actively expanded the external market. Hedging the negative impact, the threshold for restricting mutual agreement in the past has been greatly reduced, and the willingness to cooperate has been significantly enhanced. Second, from the general trend, the global perception of free trade promoting common development and improving overall well-being has not changed, defending the rules-based multilateral trading system. The will has not weakened, and the historical trend of global development towards openness and integration has not turned.

Based on the cognition of history and rationality, trade is an important engine of economic growth. Trade growth promotes world economic growth and prosperity, and the international economy is increasingly connected. The interdependence of countries is constantly improving, and economic globalization is pushed to a higher level. Whether it is Africa's creation of the world's largest free trade zone, the "marathon" negotiation between the Southern Communist Party and the European Union, or the speeding up of the Pacific Alliance and RCEP negotiations, a consensus is being reached: open cooperation is an inevitable requirement in the era of economic globalization.

Today's world trade pattern is accelerating, and some big countries hold the zero-sum thinking of winners. They replace the fair trade with the "jungle law" and attempt to "divide and rule" the world market, which seriously disrupts the global trade order. The free trade arrangement based on the WTO principles is showing an increasingly active momentum, which will undoubtedly form a check and balance against the countercurrent. People have reason to believe that as long as these free trade arrangements adhere to the concept of openness, transparency, mutual benefit and win-win, they will surely form a confluence in the historical tide of economic globalization and inject strong momentum into building an open world economy.

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