WTO head says pandemic-related trade barriers are rising

WTO head says pandemic-related trade barriers are rising
# 15 June 2021 01:27 (UTC +04:00)

The head of the World Trade Organization said on Monday that trade barriers related to medical supplies used against COVID-19 had risen and urged member states to drop them, as it intensified efforts to reach a deal on vaccine-sharing, APA reports quoting Reuters.

"The trend is going in the wrong direction," WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told a virtual U.N. forum, referring to barriers on goods trade related to the pandemic.

"We need to bring those restrictions down so we can move ... medical goods and supplies and vaccines (faster)."

She said the number of trade restrictions reported by WTO member states was 109 at the start of the pandemic early last year, and had later fallen to 51 but had since risen to 53, without giving a time-frame.

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