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(Bloomberg)–
The United Arab Emirates beat Cameroon to host the World Trade Organization’s 2024 ministerial conference, the world’s largest gathering of trade ministers.
The meeting, scheduled for the week of February 26, 2024 in Abu Dhabi, comes at a critical time in the global economic slowdown, which is reeling from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ongoing pandemic and the world’s two largest economies. faltered by the trade war between the countries. Economy. Cameroon will host the next such meeting, the WTO said on Monday.
WTO ministerial meetings are generally held every two years and usually provide political impetus to advance international trade negotiations.
For the UAE, hosting the conference is part of an effort to position itself as a global business hub amid growing competition in the Middle East. It has been rolling out bilateral trade deals with fast-growing markets since the pandemic. Next year, the Gulf Arab states will host COP 28, the United Nations climate change conference.
The top priority of the WTO’s 13th ministerial meeting, known as MC13, is to strike a deal to overhaul the trade body’s faltering dispute settlement system and modernize its 27-year-old rulebook.
Most countries want to restore the WTO’s Appellate Body – a kind of trade supreme court – which the United States paralyzed in 2019, citing systemic problems with the way its members resolve trade disputes.
MC13 will also provide a forum for WTO members to complete unfinished work from their 2022 ministerial meeting, which reached an agreement to reduce patent protection for Covid-19 vaccines and reach an agreement to curb harmful fisheries subsidies. agreement.
— With the assistance of Sylvia Westall.
©2022 Bloomberg Intelligence
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