Foreign-trade businesses adopt survival tactics

Cooperation urged

To survive the outbreak, Pan is looking to expand his business to more individual overseas customers through international e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and eBay. His is just one of the thousands of small and medium-sized foreign-trade companies battling the pandemic.

Employment, working hours and global trade are all taking a massive hit as the outbreak disrupts economic activity and life worldwide, according to major international organizations.

In its annual Trade Statistics and Outlook Report, the World Trade Organization said global trade is expected to fall by between 13 percent and 32 percent this year. It said the decline would likely be worse than the trade slump caused by the global financial crisis of 2008-09, with North America and Asia expected to suffer the most.

Meanwhile, according to a recent report released by the International Labour Organization, 6 percent to 7 percent of working hours will be lost to the novel coronavirus in the second quarter of this year, equivalent to 195 million full-time jobs.

WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo said: "The immediate goal is to bring the pandemic under control and mitigate the economic damage to people, companies and countries. But policymakers must start planning for the aftermath."

In China, a series of government measures has eased the pressure on foreign-trade companies, such as staging the 127th China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, online in mid-to late June. It will be the first time that the event has been staged in cyberspace in its 63-year history.

An integral part of the world economy, China is striving to maintain stability in global industrial and supply chains, with the majority of factories and companies resuming normal business operations.

The country is also continuing to secure international goods channels, such as China-Europe rail freight services, and improving cargo links to stabilize global supply chains and help restore exporters' earnings, according to Li Xingqian, director-general of the Ministry of Commerce's Department of Foreign Trade.

Wei Jianguo, vice-chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said it is time for the country to highlight the roles played by the processing trade and cross-border e-commerce businesses to ease pressure on importers and exporters.

"It is equally important to further tap consumption potential in the domestic market to help Chinese exporters seek new growth points," Wei said.

Azevedo said, "If countries work together, we will see a much faster recovery than if each country acts alone."

With the global economy on track to shrink by 3 percent this year due to the pandemic, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group have highlighted the importance of keeping trade open for a global recovery.

IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath said during a virtual news conference in Washington: "The world needs a healthy recovery. It needs a strong recovery, and that will not come about if the world de-globalizes, because that would severely reduce productivity in the world－and that's the last thing we want at this time."