'Urgent challenge': WTO, IMF, World Bank call for change


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The World Trade Organisation, International Monetary Fund and World Bank on Sunday issued an emergency call to reform the multilateral trading system as the US retreats from prior agreements.


‘The urgent challenge today is to harness the unique strength of the WTO,’ the bodies said in a joint report. ‘The slow pace of reforms since the early 2000s, fundamental changes in a more interconnected modern economy, and the risk of trade policy reversals call for urgency to reinvigorate trade policy reforms.’


President Trump has questioned whether the US needs to remain in organisations such as the WTO.

President Trump has questioned whether the US needs to remain in organisations such as the WTO.


Photo: Bloomberg

President Donald Trump this week harshly criticised globalism in general and questioned America’s participation in multilateral institutions like the WTO during the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York.


Meanwhile, fallout from the escalating US-China trade conflict led the WTO to cut its trade growth forecast this week, and WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo warned that a full-blown trade war ‘would knock around 17 per cent off global trade growth, and 1.9 per cent off GDP growth.’


The joint paper by the Washington-based groups outlined specific initiatives aimed at modernizing WTO rules, including a focus on increased market access for e-commerce, more flexible negotiating structures and better transparency of government trade policies.


Article source: http://watoday.com.au/comment/obituaries/doreen-warburton-stalwart-of-sydney-theatre-for-more-than-three-decades-20170726-gxj4kf.html

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