WTO holds high-stakes meeting: pandemic, war in Ukraine, food shortages on agenda
- More than 120 ministers from 164 member countries are in Geneva for the World Trade Organization’s most important meeting in nearly five years
- The war in Ukraine, food security, overfishing, vaccines, are all on the agenda as nations try to move towards more equality and fairer trade
The World Trade Organization (WTO) chief voiced cautious optimism on Sunday as global trade ministers gathered to tackle food security threatened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, overfishing and equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines.
Opening the WTO’s first ministerial meeting in nearly five years, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said to “expect a rocky, bumpy road with a few landmines along the way”.
But she told journalists she was “cautiously optimistic” that the more than 100 attending ministers would manage to agree on at least one or two of a long line of pressing issues, and that would be “a success”.
The WTO faces pressure to eke out long-sought trade deals on a range of issues and show unity amid the still raging pandemic and an impending global hunger crisis.
But since the global trade body only makes decisions by consensus, it can be more than tricky to reach agreements.
Top of the agenda at the four-day meeting is the toll Russia’s war in Ukraine, traditionally a breadbasket that feeds hundreds of millions of people, is having on food security.