Business Desk :
The general council of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has postponed its imminent ministerial conference after an outbreak of a particularly transmissible strain of the Covid-19 virus, leading several governments to impose travel restrictions that would have prevented many ministers from reaching Geneva.
The WTO made the announcement in a statement on Friday.
The 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) was due to start on November 30 and run until December 3, but the announcement of travel restrictions and quarantine requirements in Switzerland and many other European countries led General Council Chair Amb. Dacio Castillo (Honduras) to call an emergency meeting of all WTO members to inform them of the situation.
“Given these unfortunate developments and the uncertainty that they cause, we see no alternative but to propose to postpone the Ministerial Conference and reconvene it as soon as possible when conditions allow,” Amb. Castillo told the General Council. “I trust that you will fully appreciate the seriousness of the situation.”
WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the travel constraints meant that many ministers and senior delegates could not have participated in face-to-face negotiations at the conference.
This would render participation on an equal basis impossible, she said.
She pointed out that many delegations have long maintained that meeting virtually does not offer the kind of interaction necessary for holding complex negotiations on politically sensitive issues.
“This has not been an easy recommendation to make … But as Director-General, my priority is the health and safety of all MC12 participants – ministers, delegates and civil society. It is better to err on the side of caution,” she said, noting that the postponement would continue to keep the WTO in line with Swiss regulations.
WTO members were unanimous in their support of the recommendations from the Director-General and the General Council Chair, and they pledged to continue working to narrow their differences on key topics like the WTO’s response to the pandemic and the negotiations to draft rules slashing harmful fisheries subsidies.
The director-general and Castillo urged delegations to maintain the negotiating momentum that had been established in recent weeks, the WTO said in the statement.
