US Trade Wars Obstruct Transparency of Global Market - Russian Foreign Minister

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia hopes for the global trade system to be open, but the US trade policies do not contribute to transparent markets, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Sunday.

"We want the global trade system to remain open, want it to remain in place. Of course, this is not facilitated by the actions of Washington, which has already restructured the North American free-trade zone and abandoned the Trans-Pacific Partnership," the foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told the Kazakh Khabar news agency.

According to the minister, the United States allows its President Donald Trump to make important decisions on his own, without taking into consideration international structures and long-standing commitments.

Commenting on Russia's stance in the trade dispute between China and the United States, Lavrov said that Moscow has no intention to favour any party. 

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"We want to address problems not by joining a trade war on somebody's side, but by using legitimate procedures of the World Trade Organization, as we already do. This is also what China and the European Union are doing in relation to the United States," the official said. 

Lavrov concluded by expressing confidence that the US administration would understand eventually the importance "to work collectively and follow the rules which had been developed for decades for the World Trade Organization."

Over the past year, the Trump administration has been waging trade wars across the world, including trade disputes with its key partners caused by the tariffs on imported steel and aluminium. One of the most continuous trade disagreements is the US-China row which started in March and has been exacerbated over the past several months by mutual duties on imported goods.