BUENOS AIRES — The World Trade Organisation opened a conference on Sunday under the cloud of US hostility to multilateral trade accords. The 164-member WTO is also wracked by disagreements over China and has been struggling to kickstart stalled trade talks. The Buenos Aires meeting, which lasts through Wednesday, is the first in the era of US President Donald Trump, who has pummeled the body relentlessly since taking office, describing it as a “disaster”. The Trump administration has made the WTO a preferred target of its “America First” policy, threatening to pull the US out of the trade organisation it says is hampering its ability to compete. Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri said, in opening remarks, that “WTO problems get fixed with more WTO — not with less WTO”. Trump has already withdrawn the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and insisted on renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada. WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo said on Sunday he would ask US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer for “political commitment, political will and flexibility”. “Without flexibility we will not get anywhere,” Azevedo said at an opening press conference at a Buenos Aires hotel. Washington has been blamed for blocking appointments of judges to the WTO’s dispute settlement system, saying it was ineffective and insisting on a more aggressive approach to defending its interests. The dispute body arbitrates international rows over subsidies or tariffs, among other things playing an important role in the standoff between US and European… [Read full story]
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