29.05.2021 – 11:18
Trade ministers from the world’s seven largest advanced economies want to tighten regulations on industrial subsidies and curb actions by state-owned enterprises that distort trade, and they see the World Trade Organization playing a key role in addressing the problems.
“We call for the start of negotiations to develop stronger international rules on distorting industrial subsidies and distorting trade practices by state-owned enterprises.”, said the Seventh Group Trade Ministers on Friday. “We will continue our efforts to address unfair practices that force companies to transfer technology to the state or to competitors. “We recognize the critical importance of engaging with other WTO members on these issues.”
G-7 trade chiefs – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States and the European Union – said they wanted to pursue negotiations aimed at curbing state support for industries as part of a joint effort to limit China’s excessive subsidies to its private companies.
The talks, which are built on a Trump-era tripartite initiative with the EU and Japan, call for consensus on how to curb the distorted market behavior of state-owned enterprises and tackle harmful subsidy practices, including low-interest loans of state banks
The aim is to pursue a negotiation between a small group of nations that could eventually open up to wider WTO membership. If talks move forward between a broad coalition of countries, they could become the most significant attempt to rewrite WTO rules since the Doha Round of Failure, which failed in 2001, began in 2001.
The European Union and the United States are also expected to support the effort when President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meet in Brussels after the G-7 Summit in June, according to a first draft statement by Bloomberg.
Translated and adapted for Konica.al by Bloomberg