Chinese President Xi Jinping warned the U.S. President Donald Trump at BRICS, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa opening summit on Wednesday with the BRICS leaders at a three-day meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa. He said, “a trade war should be rejected because there will be no winner.”
During the summit, he said the unilateralism and the protectionism are ascending and these would affect severely the multilateralism as well as the multilateral trading plan. By saying all these, Chinese president never mentioned the United States but instead more focused on what they are heading on to create a more strong relation.
Just last week, the U.S. president said that he was already prepared with the obligatory tariffs to all imported goods coming from China that is worth $500bn (拢380bn). The presidents’ meeting about the trade bloc is, in fact, the first meeting since Trump’s administration which is viewed as unfair.
South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa agreed to what Xi said and in fact added that the tariff impact could affect other developing countries too. "We are concerned by the rise in unilateral measures that are incompatible with World Trade Organization rules and are worried about the impact of these measures, especially on developing countries," he stated.
Rob Davies, South Africa Trade Minister said that South Africa is suffering on the collateral damage caused by the U.S. tariffs on the aluminum and steel. He added that about 7, 000 South African people working are affected by the metal tariffs and their attempt to apply for exemption from the U.S government were denied.
After the summit opening ceremony, President Ramaphosa announced that China already promised $14.7bn investments in South Africa.
The BRICS countries are about 40 percent of the population globally, but these countries never worked with the economic alliance. Xi speaks to other leaders that they should be well-determined in rejecting the unilateralism because it has no benefits to both parties, but would end up both losers instead. He further said that China will be more open in the economic development.
President Xi said that developing countries together with the emerging markets are ascending altogether and unstoppable, they need to work hand-in-hand to make it globally balanced. During the summit, 22 additional countries will be joining and 19 of those countries are from Africa.
