Jack Ma at Davos: “Don’t use trade as a weapon”

Jack Ma has called on global leaders to resist a rise in protectionism and instead double down on the policies that make globalisation and free trade possible.

During a panel discussion at this year’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, the Alibaba Group Executive Chairman, said: “It’s so easy to launch a trade war, but it’s so difficult to stop the disaster of this war. Don’t use trade as a weapon, use trade as a solution to solve problems.”

In what appeared to be a thinly-veiled attack on the Trump administration, he argued that cross-border trade, especially via the internet, is the future. “In the future, no matter if you like it or you don’t like it, we will enable every young person and small business to buy globally, sell globally, and deliver globally, pay globally, and travel globally,” said Ma. “This is the trend. Nobody can stop it.”