World Trade Organization has called for restraint and urgent dialogue within the WTO system to stop trade frictions damaging the world economy.

In a statement, WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo said actions taken outside these collective processes greatly increase the risk of escalation in a confrontation that will have no winners, and which could quickly lead to a less stable trading system.

He said disrupting trade flows will jeopardize the global economy at a time when economic recovery, though fragile, has been increasingly evident around the world.