Chemical giant Dow continues to supply materials to China’s tech company Huawei despite the ongoing trade frictions, and has no plan to recalibrate its China strategy, according to Jim Fitterling, CEO of Dow, a global materials science company with 2018 sales of 49 billion U.S. dollars.

“We have not terminated any supply to Huawei. In fact, we are not a supplier for any critical technology to Huawei. We are supplying materials they use to make devices. But most of those materials are produced here locally. So I don’t think there is anything we have to be worried about,” the CEO told CGTN.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang held discussions with the CEOs of 19 multinational companies at his annual roundtable Thursday in Beijing. Fitterling attended the roundtable and considered it an opportunity to reassure the international business community about China's commitment to opening up.

“We are all multinational companies that have a big presence in China. So the dialogue with the premier is that we want to continue to grow in China. We reinforced some fundamental issues we need to tackle. In some industries, market access is not so open… we work together to open up that market access,” the CEO revealed.

Fitterling believed that further opening-up would be beneficial to China as “it allows technology to come in and creates other levels of competition.”

The roundtable also addressed concerns about intellectual property (IP) protection. “IP laws are here but working on the enforcement,” based on his words, adding that “trying to get China and the rest of world on the same standard on enforcement” would benefit both Chinese companies and foreign companies.

Meanwhile, Fitterling said there are lots of good discussions around the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), as well as other reforms approaching.

Dow was spun off from parent DowDuPont, which it had joined after the firms' 120-billion-U.S.-dollar merger in 2017. And the company relisted on the New York Stock Exchange in April.

The new Dow will be “a much more focused company,” bringing consumers more developments and investors better returns, Fitterling said.

“We work with brand owners to try to create the next generation they need to sell to their customers. About 70 percent of what we sell are in some consumer brands that you buy every day. And that focus will allow us to be a much more productive research company and a more productive manufacturing company,” he said.

As to the company’s China strategy, the CEO stated that Dow is committed to expansion in China. “I think our strategy is still the same. If we can find the way to do it competitively, we tend to manufacture in the market that we sell. That’s the best way to do business.”

And Fitterling mentioned that Dow’s investments are converting “materials for the local market into higher value use and creating new product offerings in the Chinese market.” Meanwhile, the chemical giant is trying to ensure the supply of raw materials.

“A lot of raw materials that we need come from natural gas liquids or oil, which may not be enough here to support major growth of the petrochemical industry. So you see exports coming in from Saudi Arabia, from the U.S. You have to find the right balance,” he explained.