Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde have exchanged views on the need to reform the World Trade Organization (WTO) and expressed their support for maintaining free trade and multilateralism, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th September, 2018) Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde have exchanged views on the need to reform the World Trade Organization (WTO) and expressed their support for maintaining free trade and multilateralism, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
The meeting between Wang and Lagarde took place late on Wednesday on the sidelines of the 73rd UN General Assembly in New York .
"The parties exchanged views on the WTO reform. Wang Yi said that the Chinese side was closely following the WTO reform. The Chinese side believes that the reform should correspond to WTO's basic principles and fundamental values," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Wang noted that the interests of the developing countries should be taken into account in order to make the reforms efficient, adding that the reforms should be transparent and comprehensive, according to the ministry.
"The Chinese side strongly supports the principle of multilateralism and supports free trade," Wang said, as quoted by the ministry.
Lagarde, in turn, noted that the IMF was doing its best to develop relations with China, adding that the support for multilateralism and international trade was the the organization's goal, the ministry said.
She also said that international cooperation should continue promoting multilateral trade in future.
