Beijing: Europe and China will form a group aimed at updating global trade rules to address technology policy, government subsidies and other emerging complaints in a bid to preserve support for international commerce, the vice president of the European Union's governing body said Monday.

European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen said unilateral action by US President Donald Trump in disputes over steel, China's technology policy and other issues highlighted the need to modernise the World Trade Organisation to reflect developments in the world economy.

European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen (left) attends a meeting with China's Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing. Credit:AP

US officials have said the WTO, the Geneva-based arbiter of world trade rules, is bureaucratic, rigid and slow to adapt to changes in global business and needs an overhaul.

Katainen said he did not expect negotiations on updating trade rules to be easy but that they were necessary to save the environment for multilateral trade.