Russian G20 Sherpa hopes for development of WTO reform approaches by 2019

MOSCOW, December 4. /TASS/. Russian President’s representative to the Group of Twenty (G20), Svetlana Lukash, expects that approaches to reforming the World Trade Organization (WTO) will be found by the next G20 summit in 2019. "The summit gave a start to some decisions. Particularly, the need to reform the WTO has been discussed to some extent and behind the scenes for many years, but it was the first time that the issue had been raised openly, more importantly, the need to reform the organization had been confirmed by the leaders of the world’s largest economies," the Russian Sherpa stated. "We expect that relevant work will be carried out at the World Trade Organization platform by the summit in Osaka, led by G20 countries, of course," she emphasized. Lukash also expressed hope that joint efforts of all the partners will make it possible to develop approaches as to how and in what directions the organization needs to be reformed, and on which principles and criteria this work should be based. The Russian Sherpa noted that one of the key outcomes of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires for Russia was the "end of the acute phase of trade rows that have occurred recently." Furthermore, she confirmed readiness of the countries to work at the WTO platform and their understanding of the need to upgrade its main institutions. However, Lukash stressed that the serious discussion of such a reform cannot be carried out only within the Group of Twenty. She believes that it is important to consider the views of all WTO members, which is why further work should be built at the platform of the organization. Read more