MC12: Twelfth WTO Ministerial Conference

[GordMay]

MC12: Twelfth WTO Ministerial Conference
[Nov 30 ➛ Dec 3, 2021]

The 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12), of the World Trade Organization, will take place from 30 November to 3 December 2021 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Ministers, from across the world, will have the opportunity to review the functioning of the multilateral trading system, to deliver prepared statements, and to take action on the future work of the WTO.

The Conference will be co-hosted by Kazakhstan, and chaired by the Minister of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan, Bakhyt Sultanov. Kazakhstan was originally scheduled to host MC12 in June 2020, but the conference was postponed, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The last Ministerial Conference took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in December 2017.

The Ministerial Conference is the WTO's top decision-making body. The Marrakesh Agreement, establishing the organization, instructs members to hold one, at least every two years. The event is attended by trade ministers, and other senior officials, from the 164 members of the organization.
Typically at these gatherings, ministers review the current work of the WTO, take decisions on issues [such as harmful fisheries subsidies and intellectual property rights], which the WTO delegations have put before them, and on occasion, take action to bring new members into the WTO.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations, and ratified in their parliaments. The complete set runs to some 30,000 pages, consisting of about 30 agreements, and separate commitments (called schedules), made by individual members in specific areas, such as lower tariffs, and services market-opening. The goal is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably, and freely as possible.
The World Trade Organization came into being in 1995. One of the youngest of the international organizations, the WTO is the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) established in the wake of the Second World War. From 1947 to 1994, the GATT was the forum for negotiating lower tariffs, and other trade barriers.

MC12 Home ➥ https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e...2_e/mc12_e.htm