New COVID variant is cause for concern
Nov 29, 2021
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – In a flurry of urgent travel and health news notifications last Friday, the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) was postponed indefinitely due to the detection of the omicron variant of COVID-19 in South Africa. The meeting was to be the first held since 2017 and USA Rice was registered as a credentialed non-governmental organization.
“The postponement of MC12 was disappointing as the new director general had set some ambitious goals and much work had been done by the U.S. and like-minded countries to lay the groundwork for the body’s Committee on Agriculture meetings,” said Peter Bachmann, USA Rice vice president for international trade.
Ahead of the scheduled talks, India had announced that they were tying demands for public stockholding of commodities to nearly every proposed measure – a situation that promised to block progress.
“With a number of critical reforms to the WTO sought by the U.S. agriculture industry, in-person engagement by U.S. negotiators is needed if we hope to see positive outcomes,” said Bachmann. “Perhaps the only positive in the postponement is that the extra time will allow more discussions to take place, particularly around India’s outlandish demands, before a new date is set for the Ministerial.”
USA Rice helps lead the Aggies for WTO Reform Coalition, a group of U.S.-based agricultural trade associations seeking long-term overhauls of the WTO to make it more accessible and effective for American agriculture.