Editor’s Note:
The global economy faces profound shifts as rising unilateralism challenges the multilateral trade order. How should countries respond to these challenges? What is China’s role in safeguarding the multilateral trading system? In an exclusive interview with the Global Times (GT) during the 2025 Tsinghua PBCSF Global Finance Forum, Nan Li Collins (Li), senior director of the Division on Investment and Enterprise at UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and chair of the UN Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative, shared his views.
Lujiazui area in Shanghai (Photo/Xinhua)
GT: How do you assess global growth prospects this year and what are the main challenges facing the world economy? What role can China and developing countries play in strengthening multilateral trade and fostering shared growth?
Li: Secretary-General of the UNCTAD Rebeca Grynspan recently told UN News that "we are already in a ’new normal’ of low growth and high debt," which coincides with President Xi Jinping’s assessment that "the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century and has entered a period of turmoil." Various challenges this year, including insufficient global demand, continuous geopolitical conflicts, and frequent trade frictions, have led UNCTAD to lower its 2025 global economic growth forecast to 2.3 percent, indicating the global economy is entering a contraction.
The current policy priority is to inject resilience and stability into the fragile global economy. The recent Geneva talks between China and the US have undoubtedly boosted global confidence. As a defender and advocate of the multilateral trading system, China will continue to play its important role as both a stabilizer and propeller of world economic development.
The current volatile international environment poses particularly severe tests for developing countries, which need to transform their scattered resources into development momentum through strengthened South-South cooperation and North-South dialogue. UNCTAD will also continue assisting developing countries to achieve inclusive and sustainable development through policy analysis, intergovernmental cooperation, technical assistance, and capacity building.
GT: The recent China-US Geneva trade talks achieved agreements on mutual tariff reductions and improved communication mechanisms. How significant are these outcomes for global trade and investment? What future do you foresee for China-US economic and trade cooperation?
Li: As the world’s two largest economies, stable and orderly economic and trade interactions between China and the US serve as a "barometer" for global investment and trade flows. The positive consensus reached this time undoubtedly injects a "stimulant" into the stable development of global trade and investment. For businesses, this progress will directly reduce cross-border trade costs, releasing market space for businesses in both countries.
At the global level, the positive effects of mutual tariff reductions will also spill over into other countries, creating more stable and reliable external environments for developing economies that depend on intermediate product trade, while enhancing the resilience of global supply chains.
The establishment of a China-US economic and trade consultation mechanism during these talks provides a platform for follow-up exchanges and generates optimistic expectations for future cooperation. The world hopes these two major economies can strengthen communication and cooperation within the multilateral trading system, jointly shoulder their responsibilities as major countries, and inject more certainty and stability into the global economy.
Nan Li Collins (Photo/Courtesy of the Tsinghua PBCSF)
GT: The US administration has employed tariffs as a tool to reshape trade relations, claiming to protect domestic industries and address trade imbalances. From a multilateral standpoint, how effective is this approach in achieving these objectives?
Li: The UN has always emphasized that there are no winners in trade wars. In today’s globalized world with deeply divided global value chains, economies are intricately interconnected, and actions by one major economy would reverberate across the globe. When the two main global economies engage in a tariff war, it will affect everybody, and least-developed countries (LDCs) will suffer the most severe blows.
The current international trade and investment landscape remains fragile, with global foreign direct investment (FDI) flows declining for the third consecutive year in 2024. Frequent trade frictions this year have led UNCTAD to revise down its 2025 global economic growth forecast. UNCTAD calls on countries to return to multilateralism and actively resolve structural contradictions through rules-based negotiations.
China and the US should explore cooperation potential, enlarge the pie of cooperation, continuously achieve new developments in bilateral economic relations, avoid zero-sum games, and provide more public goods for developing countries worldwide.
GT: How do you assess China’s push for high-level opening-up and a better business environment? What is the significance of such efforts for global businesses?
Li: UNCTAD regards international trade as an important tool for promoting economic growth, reducing poverty, and achieving sustainable development goals. Amid global value chain restructuring, China is actively transitioning from "factor opening-up" to "institutional opening-up." Through autonomous tariff reductions, duty-free policies for LDCs, shortening the negative list for foreign investment, expanding pilot programs for services sector opening, and actively applying to join the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, China has significantly improved policy transparency and actively aligned with high-standard international rules.
At a time when some major economies are opting for protectionism, China is actively opening its economy to provide opportunities for other countries to participate more extensively and deeply in China’s economic development. This constitutes a practical vote of confidence in multilateralism and international cooperation. Not only does it provide broad space for global economic cooperation, but it also offers important practical examples for rebuilding global business confidence and stabilizing industrial and supply chains.
GT: How do you view China’s deepening ties with the Global South? How do China’s technological advancements and investments help developing countries in emerging sectors?
Li: As the world’s largest developing country, China continues to deepen investment partnerships with Global South countries, achieving remarkable progress in technology empowerment, green transformation, and digital connectivity, while continuously injecting new momentum into South-South cooperation.
Taking the digital economy as an example, according to analysis in UNCTAD’s forthcoming World Investment Report 2025, the proportion of South-South investment in global FDI in the digital economy sector continues to rise, with China being the most important source.
China’s advancements in artificial intelligence, green economy, and digital economy will provide comprehensive opportunities for developing countries. For instance, China’s outward investment helps bridge the digital infrastructure gaps in these countries. Chinese technology provides affordable solutions for Global South nations, and its experience offers possibilities for these countries to achieve rapid development in emerging industries. We believe China’s investment cooperation with Global South countries will further benefit all developing nations and promote the building of a more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable global economic system.
原文地址：http://en.people.cn/n3/2025/0530/c90000-20321745.html