(Agencia CMA Latam) - The 11th World Trade Organization (WTO) summit began Sunday in Buenos Aires with regional leaders demanding "clear and transparent rules of the game" for the world economic development, attacking the protectionism of the Donald Trump administration and defending the multilateral trade system.
"We have a very strong commitment with the trade multilateralism, and the goal of this new stage of Argentina is to build consensus to achieve an inclusive development of our economies," said Argentinean President Mauricio Macri at the opening of the summit.
The president of the WTO conference, Susana Malcorra, said that the government of Trump has shown a protectionist attitude towards the commercial interests of his country and noted that the WTO needs reforms to deal with questions such as intellectual property, the digital economy, and the resolution of conflicts.
One of the summit's goals is to keep in line with the agreements reached in the two previous conferences, held in Indonesia in 2013, and in Kenya in 2015 - namely the harmonization of customs procedures and the reform of agricultural trade rules which eliminated subsidies to exports.
It is also expected that Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay) will sign a free trade agreement with the European Union (EU) during the summit. In this context, Macri met with his counterparts Horacio Cartés (Paraguay), Michel Temer (Brazil) and Tabaré Vázquez (Uruguay) for one hour to define the main issues of the agreement that they intend to sign before Wednesday.
The Mercosur-EU pact will be called the Framework Agreement for the Intra-Regional Association and will have three pillars: political, commercial and cooperation.
by Agencia CMA Latam
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