Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 7, 2025. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

RIO DE JANEIRO, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang said Monday that China stands ready to work with the international community to get the world economy back on track at an early date.

Li made the remarks when meeting with Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on the sidelines of the 17th BRICS Summit.

The global trade has undergone significant changes with rising unilateralism and protectionism, which has severely impacted the international economic and trade order and posed grave challenges to the world economy and countries' development, said Li.

Against this backdrop, the international community has a stronger call for safeguarding the multilateral trading system and has growing expectations for the WTO to play a more active role, he added.

Noting that economic globalization is an irreversible trend of history, Li said that China will, as always, continue to practice and safeguard multilateralism and free trade, actively support the reform and development of the WTO to restore its authority, accelerate the improvement of trade rules, and push for more concrete outcomes of the 14th WTO Ministerial Conference.

Li said China has abundant resources and means to counter adverse external impacts, and is confident in and capable of promoting a steady and healthy economic development.

This year, China has implemented more proactive and effective macro policies, advanced the strategy of expanding domestic demand, and launched special initiatives to boost consumption, he said, noting the huge, growing demand unleashed by the super-large market of over 1.4 billion consumers.

China, Li added, will introduce more measures for voluntary and unilateral opening up, strictly abide by the principles and market rules of the WTO, and continue to share development opportunities with other countries, so as to inject positive energy into the world. ■

Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 7, 2025. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)