MADRID (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th December, 2019) Foreign ministers of the countries participating in the 14th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Madrid called on the international community to fight against protectionism and respect the World Trade Organization's (WTO) rules, according to the final statement issued following the ministerial summit.
Earlier in the day, during the summit, acting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez slammed unilateral approaches to international trade, saying that protectionism and unilateralism were real threats to the fundamental norms of peaceful coexistence. He added that differences in trade should be addressed within the framework of the multilateral system based on the WTO.
The participating ministers reaffirmed the necessity to maintain, strengthen and reform the multilateral trade system based on the WTO, according to the statement. It added that they will cooperate to combat protectionism in all its forms.
According to the ministers, the current WTO system for settling disputes encourages compliance with the organization's norms.
The two-day meeting of the ASEM foreign ministers started on Sunday in Madrid and has gathered over 50 representatives from Asian and European countries.
The first ASEM summit took place in 1996. Currently, it includes 51 European and Asian countries � which together account for 60 percent of the world population, 65 percent of the global GDP and 75 percent of global tourism � as well as the European Commission and the Secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
