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.

WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala lists Covid-19 pandemic, Russia's offensive in Ukraine, and major food and energy crises as pieces of a "polycrisis".
AFP

WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala lists Covid-19 pandemic, Russia's offensive in Ukraine, and major food and energy crises as pieces of a "polycrisis".

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. 

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