The WTO, including its dispute settlement system, was not set up, as US President Donald Trump has claimed, "for the benefit of taking advantage of the United States". It was set up to facilitate global trade. No one questions that the WTO urgently needs to reform, according to a China Daily editorial.

Twenty-three years after it was founded, the world body that sets the rules governing global trade is facing multiple challenges that range from improving its dispute settlement system, and cutting agricultural subsidies to increasing market access.

In a sign of the escalating tensions between the United States and its major trading partners, the World Trade Organization agreed on Wednesday to hear complaints from the European Union and countries such as China, Canada and Mexico over new US steel and aluminum tariffs — imposed on national security grounds — as well as complaints from Washington over retaliatory duties.

And as China says, reform of the WTO does not mean reinventing the wheel, nor is it an excuse for not implementing the rules, the editorial said.