Spotlight: Australia-China relationship sign that globalization "irreversible trend": experts

Despite of the rise of protectionism, globalization is an irreversible trend, experts said at the Boao Forum for Asia in Melbourne on Thursday.

Speaking at the conference, Zhang Dawei, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE), said though globalization faced many challenges worldwide it would continue.

Zhang said the benefits of free trade could be displayed simply in the relationship between China and Australia.

He said that since China and Australia signed a free trade agreement (FTA) both countries have thrived from a growth in two-way trade of 16 billion U.S. dollars.

Australia's dairy and health supplement industries have thrived from the two nations' strong relationship, with both exhibiting a 70 percent growth in exports to China since the agreement was put in place, Zhang said.

He said that 60,000 Chinese students studied in Victoria alone every year, a practice as Jenny Shipley, former Prime Minister of New Zealand said was the single best investment that could be made in globalization.

Zhang said that many of the objections from globalization had stemmed from the unequal distribution of the benefits of globalization.

"China as a developing country has been rewarded by globalization," Zhang said.

He said that in order to ensure that the benefits were evenly distributed global governance needed to be strengthened and global governance was in need of structural reforms.

Geoff Raby, former Australian ambassador to China, said that the difference in attitudes towards globalization stemmed from a lack of strong leadership.

"There are issues with globalization such as unequal distribution of benefits but those issues have been around for a long time," Raby said.

"The difference today is there is much weaker political leadership around globalization."

He said that political leaders in the past took unpopular positions advocating for globalization and pointing out the negative effects of protectionism whereas current leaders were unwilling to take unpopular positions.

Raby said that the President-elect of the United States Donald Trump would not be able to make the protectionist ideology he made a centerpiece of his campaign a reality.

He said that World Trade Organization (WTO) restrictions would make it impossible for Trump to impose significant tariffs on U.S. trade with China and the United States' relationship with China was too complex for Trump to do any significant harm.

Shipley said her country's failed attempt at becoming an isolated nation gave her optimism that many of Trump's election promises could not be fulfilled.

"New Zealand tried in the late 80s to go full fortress and it was a complete and utter failure," Shipley said.

"It's a nice theory that you can put up walls but ultimately you defeat yourself."

Former Chairman and President of China Eximbank Li Ruogu said it was impossible for the Republican to withdraw the U.S. from global trade.

Li said that rather than abandon global trade Trump instead wanted to renegotiate free trade agreements the U.S. was involved in to ensure the U.S. derive greater benefits.

He said that to equally distribute the benefits of globalization the countries which have benefited immensely needed to increase their investment in those which have not benefited.

"Even development and even distribution of the benefits of globalization will resolve many issues," Li said.

Sudheendra Kulkarni, Chairman of the Observer Research Foundation Mumbai, said that the opposition to globalization on economic grounds was ignoring the cultural impact it was having.

"Globalization should not be viewed narrowly from economic growth perspective," Kulkarni said.

"Economic growth is important but it's not an end in itself." Endit