EU Releases Proposals to Update WTO
The European Commission issued a concept paper on how to improve the World Trade Organization, the EC said in a Sept. 18 news release. "The multilateral trading system has for the past decades provided a stable, predictable and effective framework for companies across the world, helping many economies to grow rapidly," Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom said. "Also today, the WTO is indispensable in ensuring open, fair and rules-based trade. But despite its success, the World Trade Organisation has not been able to adapt sufficiently to the rapidly changing global economy. The world has changed, the WTO has not. It's high time to act to make the system able to address challenges of the today's global economy and work for everyone again. And the EU must take a lead role in that."
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Major pieces of the proposed WTO improvements include updated rules, strengthened monitoring by WTO and "overcoming the imminent deadlock on the WTO dispute settlement system," the release said. The EU plans to present the proposals during a Sept. 20 meeting in Geneva. "The EU already started to engage with other WTO partners: with the US and Japan, in the framework of the trilateral discussions; with China, in the dedicated working group set up during the latest EU-China Summit; with other partners, most recently at the G20 Trade Ministerial," the EC said. "The EU will continue discussing these first ideas with various WTO partners in the coming weeks with a view to preparing concrete proposals to the WTO."