GENEVA (AN) — Food shortages, global access to vaccines and environmentally harmful fishing subsidies top the agenda as the World Trade Organization holds its first ministerial conference in four and a half years.
Equally on the agenda, though not literally: the future relevance of the global trade body itself. The chair of the four-day conference, Kazakh politician Timur Suleimenov, acknowledged as much as it opened on Sunday. He promoted the 164-nation WTO as a global tool in need of reform but still vital to reduce "uncertainties" through more stable, predictable markets.