Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia, has pinned hopes on a mutually satisfactory resolution that will come out soon from on-going trade negotiations between China and the U.S.

He said a positive outcome of the negotiations would be a welcome relief not only for the two sides but for the rest of the world as well.

“Now that China has definitely become the number two world economy, and trading is amounting to 600 billion dollars, therefore there may be some source of frictions as both countries are now engaging in negotiations. I hope these negotiations will be solved as soon as possible. This may be a bilateral trade relationship but it has great global implications and consequences. Not only through Asia, but throughout the world. Therefore, it is very important that this trade negotiation will come out smoothly to mutual satisfaction,” Ban Ki-moon said.

The former UN leader said the takeaway from China-U.S. trade disputes was that with the diverse systems of different countries, there ought to be international rules governing trade. “One lesson learned from this is that there are many different systems. Countries are taking a certain system and other countries are taking some other systems. But, it is important that all trading activities should be governed by a certain global standard,” he said.

Ban Ki-moon is confident that China will play a vital part in smoothing trade relations. He said, “I know the Chinese are very much committed through opening-up and I'm sure there'll be some smooth mutually satisfactory resolution of this.”

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