Since this morning, the South Africa Foreign Trade Office has been inundated with a constant stream of inquiry calls.
"What? Your side has stopped too? Import textiles valued at 50 million US Dollars have all been detained? Who detained them? By what right did they detain them?"
"100,000 barrels of wine have also been detained?"
"What? Your partners have breached the contract too? They were about to reach the port and then turned back?"
Everything was fine yesterday, but it felt like overnight, their foreign trade had almost come to a standstill.
More than 80% of the deals were almost all canceled!
The shipments they were exporting, whether by air or sea, were all directly broken, and some planes even flew over their airport, circled a few times then turned back!
As for their imports, which were supposed to be traded today, not even the shadow of the goods was seen; upon inquiry, it was discovered that all along the essential sea routes to South Africa, the shipments had been detained by those in the gulf areas!
Even if they weren't detained, those cargo-laden ships and planes also just turned back without even notifying them.
The reason is simple; it is heard that a new virus strain has been discovered in your country, and the epidemic has started to break out on a large scale again. So why on earth would they go there? Isn't their own safety the priority at this time?
And the explanations from those responsible for detaining the ships in the gulf were identical: it was to help them control the epidemic, and the exporting countries also agreed to suspend trades temporarily!
But you have to understand, regarding the imports, they had already paid a significant amount of deposits previously; now that the trade is suspended, when can they receive their goods?
The most fatal issue was that some partners straightaway terminated the contracts' citing force majeure! The final result was that they couldn't get the imported goods nor recover their deposits.
If this were just one or two deals, it might be bearable, but with this happening to 80% of the business, what are they supposed to do?
What is South Africa's biggest export? According to value, the top ten products are citrus, grapes, wine, apples and pears, corn, nuts, sugar, wool, and juice. Many of these have a very short shelf-life; don't even talk about postponing for ten days or half a month, even one week's delay, and the loss would be huge due to spoilage!
Barrels of oil are now piling up at the port, and carts of fruit and wine are all accumulated there, but they all stand like the Widow's Watch, looking toward the sea, where the trading ships are yet to arrive.
Nelson from the Import and Export Management Office was at wit's end with these calls; he was totally baffled. If the country had implemented these immigration management measures, he, as the director of the Import and Export Management Office, should have been the first to know the news!
But to date, he was clueless about what was actually happening; wasn't the national epidemic controlled a long time ago? And regarding any new viral strain, he hadn't received any notice at all. So how on earth did this mess suddenly land on him?
Having experienced the winter season of foreign trade a couple of years ago, he knew deeply how significant the impact on a country could be.
As a developed country with a very high GDP per capita, they were not worried that the collapse of foreign trade would cause a severe economic depression—they had endured the toughest times.
However, the direct consequence of the interrupted import and export was a massive shortage of reliance-imported products. Those consumables could even run out very shortly.
Bearing in mind Africa's geographical position, many things such as food had to rely on imports. Even now, millions of their people still do not have enough food.
At the height of the epidemic, they even needed the United Nations to send them special food shipments to prevent a large number of people from starving to death. With this mess, weren't they about to see a large number starving again?
Nelson immediately made a phone call to his superiors.
Just as Dlamini was feeling smug, he suddenly received a call from Wilson, and the news struck him like a bolt of lightning, leaving him dumbfounded.
Anyone could guess, could this matter be unrelated to Zhang Menglong? They already told you their boss is Zhang Menglong, and you're telling me this has nothing to do with him? He might as well drink down the 200,000 tons of oil in the port on the spot!
But if it were just one or two companies affected by this situation, that would be one thing. Now, 80% of import-export businesses have been struck!
Moreover, of this 80%, Huaxia's portion of the import-export business constitutes only about 15%, with the remaining 65% being from other countries. In other words, Zhang Menglong managed to impact such a vast array of foreign trade businesses,
who the hell can endure this!
The more you think about this matter, the deeper you must reflect. After all, even if one person has great influence, it's impossible to cause such a massive effect overnight!
Even if the bosses of those companies learned about the entry and exit restrictions South Africa is now enforcing through Zhang Menglong, it would still take some time for top-down orders to be implemented.
Just yesterday, Zhang Menglong was quarantined, and by this morning, 80% of foreign trade had collapsed. Do you really think this could be caused by an individual's public influence?
Furthermore, there was no news regarding his quarantine on any of Zhang Menglong's various social media channels. In other words, no one could know his current situation through normal channels.
There are only two possibilities for this situation.
One is that Zhang Menglong coerced or enticed those foreign trade companies to stop their dealings with them using his wealth.
The other is that Zhang Menglong is the boss behind these 80% of foreign trade enterprises; as the boss, whether to conduct business or not is simply his call!
In De Ramini's heart, perhaps the likelihood of the second reason is higher!
Who the hell can withstand this?
All at once, De Ramini realized why Zhang Menglong had complied so readily with their request to go into quarantine.
Such a clever person as Zhang Menglong, how could he not know that this was just a lie? They just thought that Zhang Menglong couldn't find any valid reason, so he chose to compromise.
But now he knew that Zhang Menglong simply didn't care about these petty schemes!
You say the epidemic has become serious, right?
No problem, since the epidemic has worsened and quarantine is needed, I'll comply!
But if the epidemic is indeed serious, then our foreign trade really cannot be conducted, can it? After all, in these transactions, there is a going to and fro, also a risk of infection, isn't there?
If by chance the virus is brought to another country, wouldn't that cause problems?
With 80% of foreign trade collapsing, what about the economy? What about imported materials and resources?
He believed that Zhang Menglong absolutely wouldn't mind this loss; with an income of 45 trillion US dollars, even just by stalling he could exhaust them to death!
So, foreign trade absolutely cannot collapse!
But if everything is as he suspected, the bell cannot be unrung except by the ringer, and to restore foreign trade, he must start with Zhang Menglong.
They surely can't tell Zhang Menglong now that there's no mutated strain in their country and no spread of the epidemic, and beg him to resume foreign trade.
Isn't that just rubbing Zhang Menglong's intelligence in the dirt?
"What in the world is this insane idea?" It was only at this time that De Ramini realized how preposterous it was to attempt to constrain Zhang Menglong's actions in this way.
They were now in an extremely difficult position, faced with either accepting a collapsed economy and foreign trade, or enduring the severe societal backlash and future unrestrained wrath of Zhang Menglong.
What kind of human suffering is this!