The bitter trade war between two of the world's largest economies has caused some countries to be wary. As the trade war between China and the United States continues to escalate the European Union is converging in order to protect the World Trade Organization (WTO).
As part of this effort, the European Union recently announced that it will host trade ministers from Japan and the U.S. next month. According to two officials with insider knowledge about the upcoming event, the summit will be held in Brussels.
According to a WTO official who wishes to remain anonymous, the summit was called as part of the effort to address some of China's trade practices. The official added that the upcoming summit will precede at least 10 high-level meetings which will be held around the globe over the next year. The said meeting will focus on calming trade tensions between some of the world's biggest economies.
The effort to reform the WTO had been in the talks for quite some already. However, it received increased urgency following the election of U.S. president Donald Trump who had been very vocal about his disdain for multilateral trade bodies like the WTO.
President Trump even publicly said, "The WTO is unfair to the U.S."
In order to reassess its current position in terms of global trade, the European Union is currently working on proposals to amend some of the compositions of the WTO. Parts of this effort will also focus on addressing various American trade complaints.
Trump has been very critical about WTO's incapability of regulating China's unprecedented economic growth. The Trump administration even went as far as imposing $50 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese goods. In retaliation, Beijing also imposed tariffs amounting to $50 billion on U.S. goods.
China iterated that should the Trump administration levy additional tariffs on various Chinese goods, the country will dutifully respond with its own set of retaliatory duties.
The Trump administration's decision to sidestep the WTO with regards to its trade concerns with China have led many analysts to predict that this result in the body's obsolescence.
Aside from the upcoming meeting in Brussels next month, the European Union have already unveiled its plans of reforming the WTO. Among the regulations included in said reforms is a promise to make negotiations more flexible and reduce trade costs.
