U.S. unilateral tariffs undermine multilateral trading system: former World Bank official

Former World Bank vice president and executive director Otaviano Canuto criticized U.S. President Donald Trump's unilateral tariffs, describing them as a threat to the multilateral trading system and a burden on developing countries.

Speaking about U.S. tariffs ahead of the 17th BRICS Summit, Canuto emphasized that these measures particularly harm developing nations reliant on trade for growth, employment and poverty reduction.

The summit, which concluded Monday under the theme "Strengthening Global South Cooperation for More Inclusive and Sustainable Governance," brought together leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, alongside newly-admitted members.

"These tariffs undermine the multilateral trading system. They violate the spirit of the World Trade Organization rules. Resorting to unilateral tariff hikes escalates tensions, fragments supply chains, and damages global economic stability. Developing countries are especially vulnerable. Higher tariffs increase costs along supply chains, reduce export opportunities, and fuel uncertainty in global markets. For, emerging economies that rely on trade for growth, employment and poverty reduction, such measures pose a direct threat to their development goals," Canuto said to China Central Television (CCTV).

Canuto called on BRICS nations to lead efforts to defend multilateralism, deepen cooperation, and promote an inclusive global economic order.

"Tariff wars deepen mistrust and division. In response, China and other BRICS countries should deepen their own cooperation, diversify trade and supply chains, defend multilateral rules, and strengthen South-to-South solidarity to promote a more fair, stable and sustainable global trading system. BRICS can serve as a platform for unified positions on defending the multilateral trading system, deepening south-south trade investment ties. That is to say, to reduce internal barriers, to trade among BRICS members and other Global South partners, promote new trade agreements, tariff reductions and customs facilitation to promote payment and settlement cooperation," he said.

The BRICS bloc recently expanded to include Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with Indonesia joining this January. Together, BRICS nations represent over half the world’s population, nearly 30 percent of global GDP, and more than 50 percent of economic growth.

U.S. unilateral tariffs undermine multilateral trading system: former World Bank official

China aims to achieve secure and reliable supply of key core artificial intelligence (AI) technologies by 2027, with its industrial scale and empowerment level remaining among the world's forefront, according to a recent government action plan.

The plan, jointly issued by eight departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Cyberspace Administration of China, and the National Development and Reform Commission, outlines an ambitious push to deeply integrate AI with the manufacturing sector, foster new quality productive forces and comprehensively empower new industrialization. By 2027, the plan targets the deep application of three to five general-purpose large AI models in manufacturing, the development of specialized, full-coverage industry-specific large models, the creation of 100 high-quality industrial datasets, and the promotion of 500 typical application scenarios.

It also aims to cultivate two to three globally influential ecosystem-leading enterprises, a batch of specialized and sophisticated small and medium-sized enterprises, and a group of enabling service providers proficient in both AI technology and industry know-how.

Furthermore, China plans to build a world-leading open-source ecosystem, enhance security governance capabilities, and contribute Chinese solutions to global AI development.

The document outlines measures including promoting the coordinated development of AI chips' hardware and software, supporting innovations in model training and inference methods, fostering key industry-specific large models, and deeply embedding large model technology into core production processes.

The plan also emphasizes making breakthroughs in key technologies such as security protection for industrial model algorithms and training data protection.

China aims for secure, reliable supply of AI core tech by 2027