WTO Delays Key Meeting Due To Outbreak Of COVID Variant

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is postponing its conference of government ministers set to open Tuesday after Switzerland initiated new travel restrictions following the emergence of a worrying new coronavirus variant, Jamey Keaten reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: The World Trade Organization Headquarters

The MC12 conference at WTO headquarters in Geneva was set to take up key issues like a long-awaited agreement on subsidies for fisheries, seen as a major way to prevent overfishing in the world’s seas, and an effort to waive patent and other intellectual property protections linked to COVID-19 vaccines.

Ambassadors from the WTO’s 164 member states agreed Friday to delay the four-day conference after new Swiss travel restrictions meant all participants wouldn’t be able to attend in person, and a virtual meeting was not deemed to be an option, the Geneva-based trade official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

British ambassador Simon Manley tweeted a photo of WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on a dais during the meeting of ambassadors, and wrote that it depicted her announcing the postponement over the health situation and “the inability of all delegations to attend.”

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