Global trade tensions have pushed international trade indicators into the red in recent months, signalling the urgent need to "do everything in our power to reduce these tensions", warned World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director General Roberto Azevêdo in Bucharest on Thursday 21 February.
Ways to strengthen the WTO's architecture must be quickly explored, he added. They should reduce these tensions while improving the efficiency of dispute settlement procedures and, above all, “make the trading system even more responsive to the challenges we have today". As for the impasse within the Appellate Body, whose appointments are still blocked by Washington, Mr Azevêdo acknowledged that no solution has yet been found (see EUROPE 12098).
Finally, the development of new multilateral rules in areas of importance to members should also improve the prospects for global trade. The subject of fisheries subsidies should be closed by the end of the year, others are on the WTO table in Geneva, including e-commerce (see EUROPE 12180).
According to Mr Azevêdo, the organisation still has the full confidence of its members; in 2018, the WTO experienced a record number of trade disputes over the past two decades.
The two speakers then joined EU Trade Ministers, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and the Chairman of the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade, Bernd Lange, to discuss these issues. (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel)