The companies that met President Xi Jinping are “in a hard point”

00:00 President

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets global business leaders in Beijing today urging them to protect world industry and supply chains in the middle of the climbing of trade war. About 40 leaders joined the meeting, including leaders of Pfizer, Qualcomm, Blackstone, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and Fedex. Here, now to discuss Shahzad Qazi, he is the director general of China Beige Books International. Shahzad, great to have you in the studio with us. So, the Xi Jinping field is that globalization, the train has left the station. Do you think that this CEO to continue working with China will work with these leaders in the middle of the climbing of Tit-For-Tat with the United States on trade?

00:38 Shahzad Qazi

So these executives, Uh who were at the forum, during this meeting, are specifically among the friends closest to China in America. The question that I think that President XI should ask himself is that these people who, at some point, dictate roughly the American trade policy, how much influence and what influence do they have in Washington of Trump today?

01:03 President

And what, I suppose, what is the answer to that since, and what does that mean for these companies, because they cannot be too friendly for China because they do not want to upset the president in the midst of a price war, but they also want to be open to opportunities with China in case this tariff war goes to a place where they need to rely on other countries. How do they travel this?

01:29 Shahzad Qazi

Yes, I mean that they are certainly in a difficult point because, you know, they are the first to lose when there are prices and they are also punished potentially in China when there are measures of reprisal in Beijing. That said, you know, I think that DC has changed quite significantly and especially the administration at the moment, I think that contrary to what the markets think they are very serious to modify America's trade relations with the world specifically with China, uh, which, I think, means that these CEOs of companies will not obtain the type of audience and audience which they may be used.

02:11 President B

Yeah, I had a question for you. You know, people say one thing and do other times, companies are not different. We see that many companies have announced big investments in the United States. However, my question is that many of them are only increases in what they do. What's going on on the Chinese side, right? Did these companies still keep these expenses and not talk about this? Investment levels directly there.

02:36 Shahzad Qazi

Yes, the image of China has become really interesting because you actually have their own Chinese suppliers who say that we are going to go to Vietnam, we are going to go to Cambodia, and of course, we are going to go to Mexico because it is the only way to get away from the prices. This of course creates a completely different problem on the political front so that political decision-makers are aimed at which is known as transhipment, that is to say that my joke is often that you put the final lace in the sneaker, you know, in a third country and send it to the United States so that you can avoid prices.

03:11 President

And I guess I wonder to what extent you think it is something that the president will work to punish. We have already seen this. He explained how if the EU and Canada work together, they will face even more prices. Should companies be ready to be punished for any type of bypass solution that they could promulgate?

03:32 Shahzad Qazi

Uh, I would say that companies must be prepared for much more uncertainty in terms of commercial policy uh, the two in terms of prices are deployed next week, then how this tariff saga continues because I do not think it leaves us anytime soon.