World Trade Organisation (WTO) has postponed its “World Trade Organization ministerial conference (WTO MC 12), due to concerns over new Omicron Covid-19 variant.

Highlights

• The WTO MC 12 was scheduled to held in November 2021.
• The WTO was hoping that four-day gathering in Geneva would bring new life into the organisation, which was stuck for years in order to make progress on resolving issues like fishery subsidies.
• Members of WTO also unanimously supported the postponement call.

Background

The WTO’s 12th ministerial conference (MC12) has already been postponed once before, amid covid-19 pandemic. The conference was originally scheduled to take place in capital of Kazakhstan, Nur-Sultan in June 2020. The WTO conference usually takes place once in two years.