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BRUSSELS – The EU's chief of trade said on Friday that she would support the reform efforts of the World Trade Organization at a summit meeting of the Group of 20 in Japan next June.
The European Union and Japan consider that a reform is needed to put an end to dubious business practices of members such as China and to create more equitable conditions of competition.
"It is true that the WTO needs to be reformed, updated, modernized," Cecilia Malmstrom, EU Trade Commissioner, told reporters in Brussels, adding that the EU would support Japan in this case during his presidency of the G20 next year.
Earlier this month, the European Union, along with Japan and the United States, submitted a joint proposal to the international trade body advocating tighter rules against trade-distorting subsidies, among other reforms.
Malmstrom said the EU also criticized China's huge industrial subsidies and its obligation to force foreign companies to transfer technology, but stressed that WTO reform could not be achieved. without China.
"We need to engage with China to remind them that the WTO has been very good for China and that it is in their interest to participate in the updating of the rules within China. the WTO and not outside, "she said.
At the same time, she criticized the trade position of US President Donald Trump against China, the tariff war between the two largest economies in the world showing no sign of stopping.
"We do not think that the way to change China is to have a tariff war or a trade war. It's not going to create changes. We prefer the multilateral route: sit down for talks, try to negotiate, find compromises and go forward, "Malmstrom said.
But for the moment, she said the world could "only hope" that a meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in the coming week in Buenos Aires would ease trade tensions, which has fears a sharp slowdown in the global economy.
Malmstrom warned that a trade war is bad for the global economy and that it has "no winners".
Regarding the Japan-EU Free Trade Agreement signed in July, Malmstrom confirmed that the agreement would come into effect on February 1 if the ratification process proceeded smoothly. .
"This is a win-win agreement between two friends and allies," she said, adding that it would not only eliminate virtually all tariffs, but also make it easier. 39, export of Japanese agricultural products.
Japan and the European Union are in the process of ratifying the Free Trade Agreement, with both sides facing difficult trade negotiations with the Trump administration over its "America First" policy .
Trump also criticized the WTO, which sets rules on global trade and resolves disputes between member countries, as being biased against the United States, and threatened to pull out of the organization if it does not. did not apply the reforms.
