PORT MORESBY, November 17. /TASS/. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has noted the necessity of reforming the World Trade Organization (WTO).

"Like many countries, we agree that the organization [WTO] really needs reforms, but without diminishing its influence, undermining its main principles and especially without dismantling it which would mean total collapse of civilized trade," Medvedev said at the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Port Moresby.

The prime minister called for joining efforts to increase WTO's effectiveness and regulatory role. "Russia proceeds from the assumption that only on the basis of transparent WTO norms which take into account specificity of each economy in the Asia Pacific, each APEC economy, we can create an Asia-Pacific free trade zone, to make it a truly open market, not a narrow-format system of collective protectionism," he added.