Visions for the Future: Companies at Boao express support for free trade

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On Tuesday at the Boao Forum for Asia, trade tensions between China and the US continue to come under the spotlight. Three sessions are slated to discuss it from different angles. Yang Chengxi interviewed business leaders for their views on free trade.

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 DELOITTE "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, GLOBAL CHAIRMAN DELOITTE "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 COCA-COLA GREATER CHINA, S. KOREA & MONGOLIA "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."

YANG CHENGXI BOAO, HAINAN "In one of the discussion sessions on Tuesday, participants talked about the structural challenges to the US economy. Some say protectionism measures can not fix the USA's problems. They say it's the wrong prescription for the economy's chronic symptoms."

ZHU MIN, PRESIDENT CHINA ACADEMY OF FINANCIAL RESEARCH "The problem behind USA's trade deficit is actually its economic structure. The society's consumption is too high, and there isn't enough savings. The result is that you have to import more goods than you export. If this structure isn't changed, there will still be deficits in the next 30 years."

The consensus among Boao participants is that rationality could prevail and a trade war could be avoided. Because when it comes to a trade war, there is no winner. YCX, CGTN, BOAO, HAINAN PROVINCE.