WTO members meet in shadow of Russia-Ukraine conflict
Head of World Trade Organization predicts a “bumpy and rocky” road as it opens its highest-level meeting in 4-1/2 years, with issues like pandemic preparedness, food insecurity and overfishing of the world’s seas on the agenda.
(AFP)
World Trade Organization (WTO) chief
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has expressed cautious optimism that
more than 100 trade ministers meeting in Geneva would achieve
one or two global deals this week, but warned the path there
would be bumpy and rocky.
The director-general from Nigeria said on Sunday the world had changed
since the WTO’s last ministerial conference nearly five years
ago.
“I wish I could say for better. It has certainly become more
complicated,” she told a news conference before the June 12-15
meeting, listing the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, and
major food and energy crises as pieces of a “polycrisis”.
As a sign of divisions among the WTO’s 164 members, some
30-40 nations walked out when the Russian economic development
minister Maxim Reshetnikov took to the floor.
Earlier, trade ministers from the European Union and 29
other WTO members met with Ukraine to express their solidarity
and support and wish to alleviate food supply problems.
Speaking to ministers at the opening, the WTO chief urged
them to “show the world that the WTO can step up to the plate”
and achieve agreements on subjects such as reducing fishing
subsidies, boosting access to COVID-19 vaccines, addressing food
security and setting a course for reform of the WTO itself.
“What remains to be decided requires political will – and I
know you have it – to get us over the finish line,” she said.
However, she warned that it would be challenging.
“Let me be clear, even landing one or two will not be an
easy road. The road will be bumpy and rocky. There may be a
landmine along the way,” Okonjo-Iweala said, adding she was
“cautiously optimistic” that the meeting would conclude with one
or two deals.
She also cautioned ministers to recognise that compromises
are never perfect.
‘Vaccine apartheid’
The WTO’s 164 members take decisions by
consensus, meaning a single member can block progress, and
negotiations often last years.
The 27-year-old WTO is itself in trouble. Former US president Donald Trump crippled the WTO’s Appellate Body that
rules on disputes over two years ago, and WTO members have only
ever agreed one global deal, the red-tape cutting Trade
Facilitation Agreement, in 2013.
In a sign of the global difficulties, Sunday’s opening
session meeting was dedicated to “challenges facing the
multilateral trading system”.
Campaign groups gathered near the body’s lakeside
headquarters over the weekend, some denouncing capitalism and
others calling for an end to “vaccine apartheid”.
They were all
barred from entering the WTO headquarters on Sunday on security
grounds, according to an email seen by Reuters news agency.
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
Head of World Trade Organization predicts a “bumpy and rocky” road as it opens its highest-level meeting in 4-1/2 years, with issues like pandemic preparedness, food insecurity and overfishing of the world’s seas on the agenda.
(AFP)
World Trade Organization (WTO) chief
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has expressed cautious optimism that
more than 100 trade ministers meeting in Geneva would achieve
one or two global deals this week, but warned the path there
would be bumpy and rocky.
The director-general from Nigeria said on Sunday the world had changed
since the WTO’s last ministerial conference nearly five years
ago.
“I wish I could say for better. It has certainly become more
complicated,” she told a news conference before the June 12-15
meeting, listing the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, and
major food and energy crises as pieces of a “polycrisis”.
As a sign of divisions among the WTO’s 164 members, some
30-40 nations walked out when the Russian economic development
minister Maxim Reshetnikov took to the floor.
Earlier, trade ministers from the European Union and 29
other WTO members met with Ukraine to express their solidarity
and support and wish to alleviate food supply problems.
Speaking to ministers at the opening, the WTO chief urged
them to “show the world that the WTO can step up to the plate”
and achieve agreements on subjects such as reducing fishing
subsidies, boosting access to COVID-19 vaccines, addressing food
security and setting a course for reform of the WTO itself.
“What remains to be decided requires political will – and I
know you have it – to get us over the finish line,” she said.
However, she warned that it would be challenging.
“Let me be clear, even landing one or two will not be an
easy road. The road will be bumpy and rocky. There may be a
landmine along the way,” Okonjo-Iweala said, adding she was
“cautiously optimistic” that the meeting would conclude with one
or two deals.
She also cautioned ministers to recognise that compromises
are never perfect.
‘Vaccine apartheid’
The WTO’s 164 members take decisions by
consensus, meaning a single member can block progress, and
negotiations often last years.
The 27-year-old WTO is itself in trouble. Former US president Donald Trump crippled the WTO’s Appellate Body that
rules on disputes over two years ago, and WTO members have only
ever agreed one global deal, the red-tape cutting Trade
Facilitation Agreement, in 2013.
In a sign of the global difficulties, Sunday’s opening
session meeting was dedicated to “challenges facing the
multilateral trading system”.
Campaign groups gathered near the body’s lakeside
headquarters over the weekend, some denouncing capitalism and
others calling for an end to “vaccine apartheid”.
They were all
barred from entering the WTO headquarters on Sunday on security
grounds, according to an email seen by Reuters news agency.
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
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