THE economic rebound in China is “very important” for global trade as the world continues to attempt to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

That’s according to World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in an interview in which she shared her thoughts on the current global trade situation.

Global trade has rebounded faster than expected this year, at 8 percent, while the WTO is projecting it will grow by a further 4 percent in 2022.

Okonjo-Iweala believes the strong recovery is down to two reasons.

“The way that governments responded very fast with massive amounts of fiscal stimulus has helped to improve the performance of the global economy and avoid deep recessions that happened at the beginning of COVID-19. So that has been very helpful in putting liquidity in businesses and money in the hands of consumers,” Okonjo-Iweala said.

“The other thing is vaccines. I mean, the fact that the world came up with vaccines much faster than we’ve ever seen, gave a big boost of hope and the fact that global supply chains were also resilient. We were able to move medical supplies around, including the vaccines, so that has been part of the recovery,” she added.

Okonjo-Iweala has also called on governments to continue to provide vaccines to everyone, not just within their own country. “The biggest fiscal stimulus they can have is providing vaccines to everyone. No one is going to be safe until everyone is vaccinated. I think trying to provide vaccines to the rich and poor alike,” she said.

The WTO chief has explained the importance of China’s fast recovery and the implications that could have on trade across the rest of the world.

“China is the biggest trading partner in the world. I mean, I think it is virtually 25 percent of world trade. So it’s big in exports. It’s big in imports. So China’s rebound is very important for the world. And China recovered very fast from the pandemic,” she said.

“China put in policies fast enough that led to the economy rebounding and now growth is expected, you know, at rates that are much higher than other countries’. So that role of the engine of growth and trade is very important. So China in the WTO plays a very important role, [it] is one of the most active members in the WTO,” she explained.

Last month, Okonjo-Iweala made history by becoming the first woman and first African in the organization’s history to be appointed the top job at the WTO. (CGTN)