European Council president Donald Tusk has called for reform of the World Trade Organization, including new rules on industrial subsidies and intellectual property rights, as Europe tries to form a common front with China against Washington’s trade tariffs.

After his meeting with Chinese premier Li Keqiang, European Council president Donald Tusk noted that US president Donald Trump was about to meet with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. “We are all aware of the fact that the architecture of the world is changing before our very eyes,” he said wryly.

“It is a common duty of Europe and China, America and Russia, not to destroy this order, but to improve it, Mr Tusk told journalists in Beijing. “Not to start trade wars, which turned into hot conflicts so often in our history, but to bravely and responsibly reform the rules-based international order.”