G20 trade ministers say WTO reform ‘urgent’

Trade and investment ministers from G20 countries meeting in Argentina said there was an “urgent need” to improve the World Trade Organization, a joint statement said on Sept.14. With U.S. President Donald Trump readying tariffs on another $200 billion in Chinese goods, the ministers said they were “stepping up the dialogue” on international trade disputes, according to the statement issued at the summit. It did not provide any details of possible WTO reforms or how dialogue on trade was being increased. “Obviously the new tariff measures are not positive,” Argentina’s Production and Labor Minister, Dante Sica, said in a news conference at the end of the one-day meeting. “But we need to see how things evolve.”