WTO Fixes June 13 for Restarting MC12, Expects to Achieve Multilateral Action on COVID-19 Response

Dike Onwuamaeze

The general council of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has finally agreed announced June 13, 2022, for restarting its Ministerial Conference 12 (MC12).

This was disclosed yesterday by the spokesperson of the WTO, Mr. Keith Rockwell, during a virtual meeting with journalists on the proceedings of yesterday’s formal general council’s meeting, which he described as one of the most positive in recent times that he has attended.

Rockwell also added that the WTO was closer now to reaching a multilateral action on its overall response to COVID-19, adding that the Director General of the WTO, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, made it clear that the organisation should not wait till the week of June 13, to strike a deal on the WTO’s response to COVID, including the dual elements of trade and intellectual property aspects of the deal

The MC12, which was scheduled to hold between November 20 and December 3, 2021, was postponed due to the outbreak of Omicron, a variant of the COVID that was spreading fast at the period.

The MC12, according to a WTO source, is important to provide the political impetus needed to keep the negotiations on fisheries subsidies, COVID response, etc. focused without drifting.

He said: “I can confirm that the general council has approved the week of June 13 for the re-launch of MC12. At the informal council that preceded the meeting (on Tuesday) there were concerns, especially from Russia that this is the week they are having St. Petersburg Economic Summit. But in the interest of solidarity and consensus these concerns have been put to the side and the council agreed on that today (yesterday).”

He said another important thing was that members have accepted the establishment of the working party so that activities would commence in the coming weeks and months.

Spokesperson of the WTO said the promise of having a multilateral action on COVID response made the Chairman of WTO General Council, Ambassador Dacio Castillo (of Honduras) to enthuse that “though we still have significant gaps to breach, I hope today all of you can recognise that we are much closer to a multilateral action (than) you would probably believe if everyone can be pragmatic to focus on the point of convergence and leave aside the divergences I have no doubt that we can get this dome and that we can make this happen.”

Rockwell said he has never heard any of the former chair, “saying this before and that is significant in my view. And I think that many of the response from members were quite positive but there are still gaps. There are still those that have strong opposition to the trade waver.

“I will also say that the Director General made it clear that we should not wait till the week of June 13 to strike a deal on the WTO response to COVID, including the elements of trade and elements of intellectual property.”