Canada sends S.O.S to Australia to help save W.T.O and U.S & China not invited

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/canada-seeks-australia-s-help-on-trade-war-but-us-and-china-not-invited-20181018-p50ab4.html

Beijing: Australia has been called on by Canada to help "save the WTO", with the Morrison government preparing to attend a meeting next week that deliberately excludes trade war combatants the United States and China.

In a sign of the political sensitivity of moves to reform the World Trade Organisation, which Donald Trump has threatened to quit, Trade Minister Simon Birmingham is exected to represent Australia at the Ottawa Ministerial on WTO Reform on October 25.

A discussion paper circulated ahead of the Ottawa meeting implicitly criticises the US for blocking the appointment of new judges to the WTO, which "threatens to bring the whole dispute settlement system to a halt". By December, there will only be one judge left.

Canada is pushing to strengthen dispute resolution and modernise the WTO, and has invited Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Mexico, Switzerland and the European Union, among others, to the meeting, which has been dubbed the "save the WTO summit".

But the US is pushing its own WTO reform proposal – and has sought backing from Japan and the EU – to stop China claiming special treatment as a "developing" nation, and to impose restrictions on the country's state-owned enterprises.