WTO delays key meeting amid COVID variant concerns

By JAMEY KEATEN
Associated Press

GENEVA (AP) — The World Trade Organization is postponing its conference set to open Tuesday after Switzerland initiated new travel restrictions following the emergence of a worrying new coronavirus variant, officials said. The MC12 conference at WTO headquarters in Geneva was set to take up key issues like a long-awaited agreement on subsidies for fisheries, seen as a major way to prevent overfishing in the world’s seas, and an effort to waive patent and other intellectual property protections linked to COVID-19 vaccines. Ambassadors from the WTO’s 164 member states agreed to delay the four-day conference after new Swiss travel restrictions meant all participants wouldn’t be able to attend in person.