RIO DE JANEIRO, April 29. /TASS/. Russia considers it necessary to return to the principles that were originally laid down as the foundation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after a meeting of the BRICS foreign ministers in Brazil.
"If the principles that are enshrined in the foundation of the WTO were fully observed, they would certainly meet the interests of all states that are members of the WTO," he noted.
"But the fact is that these principles are not observed, so we simply need to return to the basics.
It is in this vein that we talk about reforming the WTO - reforming not in order to cross out the principles of equality and mutual benefit, fair competition, but in order to strengthen them and agree on their implementation, so that there are no more attempts to proclaim commitment to these principles in words, but in fact do the exact opposite," the Russian top diplomat said.
To illustrate the fact that today the WTO is deprived of the opportunity to fully perform the functions that were originally assigned to it, Lavrov said: "The work of the key WTO dispute settlement body has been blocked for many years, primarily by the United States, which does not want this body to consider fair claims brought against the United States in connection with protectionist and other illegal measures."
Lavrov compared the situation with the WTO to the situation that has developed with the application of the UN Charter.
"The Charter is good, it fully meets all the requirements for strengthening multipolarity in world relations. It's just that Western countries either apply it from time to time, at random, or ignore it altogether and promote their own order based on rules," he said.