EU leader Tusk Urges US, Russia and China to Prevent Chaos

European Council President Donald Tusk on Monday called China, the United States and Russia to work together to avoid trade wars and and reform the World Trade Organization. He said “There is still time to prevent conflict and chaos.”
Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker are in Beijing to meet Chinese Premier Li Keqiang for an annual China-EU leaders dialogue.
“We are all aware of the fact that the architecture of the world is changing before our very eyes and it is our common responsibility to make it a change for the better,” Mr Tusk said.
European Council president Donald Tusk was speaking in Beijing at the opening of a summit between China and the European Union, just hours ahead of a summit between Mr Trump and Mr Putin in Helsinki.
On Sunday, US president Donald Trump described the EU as one of his country’s greatest “foes”, calling the body “very difficult”. Hours earlier he advised the British prime minister, Theresa May to sue the EU rather than negotiate over Brexit.
China meanwhile faces potential tariffs on more than $500bn in exports to the US and has called on the EU to work with China to champion global trade. The US has also imposed tariffs on EU steel and aluminium.
China’s ambassador to the EU, Zhang Ming, said in an editorial in the People’s Daily on Sunday that China and the EU are the world’s “two major forces of stability and responsibility” who are meeting amid a “din of unilateralism and protectionism”.
“I hope during the summit China and the EU will consolidate consensus and trust… and send a joint message defending multilateralism, free trade and investment facilitation,” Zhang wrote.
Referring to the World Trade Organization Tusk said, “this is why I am calling on our Chinese hosts, but also on presidents Trump and Putin, to jointly start this process from a thorough reform of the WTO”.
>Juthy Saha