United States | Washington, DC, 10 January 2019

This week, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström spoke at the Atlantic Council in Washington D.C. about the current international trade landscape.

In her speech, Malmström pointed out the importance of reforming the WTO, in order to maintain the effectiveness of the system.

“International trade without the WTO would be anarchic. Countries would be bullied, companies would fall victim to unfair practices – there would be no reliability, no stability. So we need to repair and stand up for the system“, Malmström said.

The trade Commissioner also spoke about this week’s meetings in Washington between her and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, and in the trilateral format between the EU, Japan and the US.

The full speech at the Atlantic Council is available here.

Commissioner Malmström met twice with Ambassador Lighthizer this week, in the framework of the Executive Working Group set up by Presidents Juncker and Trump to implement a positive EU-US trade agenda.

On Wednesday, Commissioner Malmström also chaired the fifth ministerial level trilateral meeting between the EU, the US and Japan on cooperation on global issues such as trade-distorting practices. A joint statement was issued at the end of the meeting.