Cecilia Malmstrom: Swift action needed for WTO not to fall apart

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is in a difficult situation at the moment, and swift action is needed for this entity not to fall apart, Cecilia Malmstrom, European Commissioner for Trade told on Friday a joint press conference held at the Parliament Palace with the Minister for the Business Milieu, Commerce and Entrepreneurship, Stefan-Radu Oprea. I have spoken today about the reform of the World Trade Organization. We are in a difficult situation and swift action is needed for this organization not to fall apart. Member States strongly support the European Commission's trials in Geneva with a number of partners to strengthen the reform of the World Trade Organization and to modernize this institution. The appeal body is one of the big issues because it is still blocked. Proposals have been made to unlock the situation and I hope some negotiations will be pursued to take things forward. We are in the process of updating the rules of the World Trade Organization and we are cooperating with Japan and the United States in this regard. We have had five ministerial meetings so far and we are continuing to make our day-to-day work in the WTO more efficient. We are working on transparency, the notification process, and the streamlining of the committee work, Malmstrom said. The European Commissioner for Trade also underlined that at EU level there are "some concerns about the trade policy currently led by the United States." Trade ministers from EU member states met Friday at the Parliament Palace in Bucharest to discuss the process of modernization of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and trade relations between the EU and the US.AGERPRES(RO - author: Daniel Badea, editor: Andreea Marinescu; EN - author: Simona Iacob, editor: Maria Voican)