Protectionism is not good for any business especially global trade, which is very important for growth, creating jobs and contributing to sustainability, said DP World Group Chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem.

 

In spite of protectionism, world trade has remained resilient. “You can see, despite all these kind of (protective) tariffs and all of that, trade continued to flow between countries. People will need to sell, people will need to buy and they will find a way,” Sulayem told CNN’s Quest Means Business.

 

“However, unfortunately, we see more voices talking about protectionism than free trade,” Sulayem said in the interview with CNN’s Richard Quest.

 

Growth in every region

Despite all these, “we see growth in our business, believe it or not. We see growth in every region, whether it is Latin America or Far East, or Middle East, or Africa -- growth is there, despite the uncertainty. There are certain markets where it has affected, maybe Europe and America, but the rest of the world and the actual US’ economy is very strong and growing.”

 

The Chairman also discussed the biggest obstacles facing global trade: “In our business, my biggest worry is technology. Technology disruptions are something in case we don't know about it, or we are not aware of it, or not having taken into consideration, it is going to affect our business.”

 

He continued: “A new technology that could come in, that could affect our business, the way we run our business, the way we trade, all of these things are a concern.”

 

On cargo routes post-pandemic, he said: “We learned the hard way that we have to find intermodal routes for cargo and if there is a problem. For example, we take cargo today from our port in Karachi all the way to Iraq, all the way to Turkey within seven days crossing land. So with all what we learned in the pandemic, we can deal with these issues, definitely.”--TradeArabia News Service