The European Commission on Tuesday released its first set of ideas for the modernisation of the World Trade Organisation(WTO), aiming to make the system adapt "sufficiently to the rapidly changing global economy".
The ideas in the proposal relate to three key areas, which are updating the rule book on international trade to capture today's global economy, strengthening the monitoring role of the WTO and overcoming the imminent deadlock on the WTO dispute settlement system.
"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. Also today, the WTO is indispensable in ensuring open, fair and rules-based trade," said Cecilia Malmstrom, the Commissioner for 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 today's global economy and work for everyone again. And the EU must take a lead role in that," she added.
The reform proposals will be presented to EU partners in Geneva on Sept. 20 during a meeting convened by Canada.
And the EU will discuss with its WTO partners in the coming weeks with a view to preparing concrete proposals to the WTO.
