18 June 2017, 18:06 GMT
DALIAN (Sputnik) — The Russian government agencies responsible for economic issues support the principles of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) inviolability, but believe that the system should be modernized, Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development Alexey Gruzdev said Tuesday.
"In our opinion… our economic agencies adhere to the principles of WTO's inviolability, of a multilateral trade system,… which is of course needs a modernization, an increase in efficiency of certain points [of it]," Gruzdev told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Annual Meeting of the New Champions held in China.
The official added that protectionism was much less constructive when compared with the option of liberal trade, which allows the countries to increase the competitiveness of economies.
The Annual Meeting of the New Champions, which is also known as Summer Davos, kicked off earlier in the day in the Chinese city of Dalian and will continue until Thursday.
