The World Trade Organization (WTO) has decided to postpone its 12th ministerial conference, which was to be held in Geneva from November 30 to December 3, due to a new strain of coronavirus infection, writes Reuters.
“The Twelfth WTO Ministerial Conference has been postponed. This decision, made by the Chairman of the General Council and Director General of the WTO, found support from all members of the organization. That’s the right decision. The work must and will continue”, WTO Deputy Director General Anabel Gonzalez wrote on Twitter.
According to her, the WTO General Council decided to postpone the ministerial conference due to “an outbreak of the highly contagious strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has led to the fact that several governments have imposed travel restrictions that prevent many ministers from arriving in Geneva.”
Gonzalez noted that travel restrictions will prevent some senior delegates from participating in face-to-face negotiations, making it impossible for them to “participate equally in the conference”. We will remind that earlier Switzerland introduced a ban on flights from a number of states in southern Africa in connection with a new strain of the omicron coronavirus discovered there.