(WTO) MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has been managed by its member nations. Moreover, all key decisions have been decided by the whole membership, either by their ministers or by their representatives or ambassadors, depending on the situation. More details are given in the below sections.

Normally, decisions are attained by a consensus process. As opposed to other international institutions namely the “World Bank” and “International Monetary Fund”, the WTO is unique in this context. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) does not have a board of directors or a chief executive officer. It is the result of agreements among WTO members when WTO rules put restrictions upon nations’ policies. 

Those regulations have been enforced by their members that they have agreed upon and negotiated, which may possess the threat of trade sanctions. Again, those penalties, on another hand, have been applied by individual member countries and approved through the entire membership. Unlike other institutions, which may, for example, influence a country’s policies by threatening to withdraw loans, the World Bank does not have a bureaucracy that can do so. 

The Ministerial Conference is the highest level of authority.

The ministry conference is an authoritative body that regulates the functions of the WTO. The ministry council enables the difficulties to conclude by agreement among a group of around 150 people. The primary benefit of this method is that judgments made in this manner are more acceptable to all of the members. Some extraordinary agreements have been struck despite the difficulties. However, suggestions for the development of an executive body with fewer members, such as a smaller board of directors composed of members from diverse groupings of nations, are heard. However, for the time being, the World Trade Institution is a member-driven, consensus-based organisation. 

The World Trade Organization’s Ministerial Conference is scheduled for 2021.

In accordance with a resolution published on February 23, 2022, the twelfth Ministerial Conference (MC12) will convene during the week of June 13, 2022. According to the Agreement of Marrakesh, which established the World Trade Organisation, the Ministerial Conference has been required to convene once at least every two years. 

Members of WTO initially agreed that the “12th Ministerial Conference (MC12)” would be conducted in Kazakhstan in June 2020, when the country joined the WTO in 2015. The event was scheduled to be conducted in Nur-Sultan from 8th to 11th June 2018. As a result of the COVID-19 epidemic, the Government of Kazakhstan declared on March 12, 2020, that it would no longer be hosting this conference, and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) indicated that discussions would be launched to determine how to continue with arrangements for MC12.

 The World Trade Organisation (WTO) stated on 1 March 2021 that members of the WTO had decided to hold MC12 during the week of 29 November 2021 in Geneva, Switzerland. The dates were eventually decided for the 30th of November to the 3rd of December in 2021. However, as a result of the imposition of travel restrictions after the discovery of a new form of the COVID-19 virus, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) stated on November 26, 2021, that MC12 would be postponed indefinitely. BakhytSultanov, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Trade and Integration, is slated to preside over MC12, which was ratified by WTO members in December 2018.

Members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have agreed on dates for the MC12 meeting in mid-June.

On the 23rd of February, members of the WTO decided that the postponed MC12 will now take place during the week of the 13th of June in Geneva. The decision was made during a meeting of the organisation’s General Council after the relaxation of COVID-19 pandemic limitations in the host nation of Switzerland, which was the catalyst for the meeting. Due to the outbreak of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, which resulted in the imposition of travel restrictions and quarantine requirements in Switzerland and many other European countries, MC12 was originally scheduled for November 30, 2020, to take place from December 3, 2020. However, the event was postponed until further notice. 

The head of the General Council, Ambassador Dacio Castillo of Honduras, said that setting the dates for the much-anticipated meeting will provide a boost to the WTO’s work and offer a focus for the debate on ministerial conclusions. He said that the precise dates of the meeting would be determined later. “Let us work together with the fundamental goal in mind: that the Conference will present the WTO, as well as us here in Geneva, with a chance to show that the WTO is capable of delivering,” Ambassador Castillo said in his opening remarks. “Let’s make this count for something.” The epidemic has prompted the postponing of MC12 on two separate occasions. The summit was initially slated to be conducted in June 2020 at Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, but was postponed.

Conclusion

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has been managed by member countries and a bright idea has been provided. Moreover, WTO’s latest summit, ministry conference, and members of 2021 have also been described in the above section for a better acknowledgement.