EU to US, Russia, China: Don’t destroy global order

A senior European official on Monday urged US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and China to work with Europe to avoid trade wars and prevent conflict and chaos.

Speaking before Trump and Putin were due to meet in Helsinki, European Council President Donald Tusk appealed for leaders to avoid wrecking a political and economic order that nurtured a peaceful Europe and developing China.

Tusk spoke at a news conference with China’s No. 2 leader, Premier Li Keqiang, following an annual EU-Chinese economic summit also attended by the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker. They met amid mounting acrimony over Trump’s tariff hikes on goods from China, Europe and other trading partners.

“It is the common duty of Europe and China, America and Russia, not to destroy this order but to improve it, not to start trade wars which turn into hot conflict so often in our history,” said Tusk, a former Polish prime minister.

Tusk appealed to governments to “bravely and responsibly” reform the World Trade Organisation, the global trade regulator, by updating its rules to address technology policy and state-owned industries — areas in which Beijing has conflicts with its trading partners.

Trump has criticised the World Trade Organisation as outdated and has gone outside the body to impose import controls, prompting warnings he was undermining the global system.

BEIJING:

China announced it filed a World Trade Organisation challenge to US President Donald Trump’s proposal for a tariff hike on $200 billion of Chinese goods, reacting swiftly amid deepening concern about the economic impact of their spiraling technology dispute. The one-sentence commerce ministry statement gave no legal grounds for the challenge or other details. It was an unusually rapid move for a trade case, coming less than one week after the US trade representative announced the tariff plan, which wouldn’t take effect until at least September.

BEIJING: