15/11/2019 (Agence Europe) – The European Union has received welcome support from BRICS in its calls to reform the World Trade Organization (WTO). At the end of their 14th meeting in Brasilia on 14 November, BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) called for a “strengthening and reforming” of the multilateral trading system, with a focus on the WTO. In a barely veiled criticism of the Trump administration, the five countries warned against protectionism and, in their joint statement, called for international trade to be “rules-based, transparent, non-discriminatory, open, free and inclusive”. Finally, these officials from the largest emerging economies stressed “the importance of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, with its binding two-stage decision-making system”, inviting members to “break the impasse in appointing members of the Appellate Body”. (HD)