TWN Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Jun20/03)
5 June 2020
Third World Network

WTO to gradually resume meetings at its premises as of 15 June
Published in SUNS #9132 dated 5 June 2020

Geneva, 4 Jun (D. Ravi Kanth) – The World Trade Organization’s Deputy Director-General Karl Brauner informed members on 4 June that the WTO plans to gradually resume, as of 15 June, meetings with delegates in its main CR meeting room.

The announcement came in an urgent message to members about “document distribution, meetings, and Covid-19 positive cases”.

In his message sent to members, seen by the SUNS, the DDG said that “as of 8 June 2020, paper document distribution to WTO Members will gradually resume at the Documents Centre relocated at the CR building (i.e. pigeon holes of delegations at the lobby of the CR building).”

As regards the meetings, he said that the “WTO plans to gradually resume, as of 15 June 2020, meetings with delegates at the CR meeting room only.”

“At first, for the health protection of delegates and to ensure proper social distancing, only one person per delegation will be invited to attend meetings at the WTO,” the DDG said.

“Other members of the delegation will be invited to attend the meetings virtually (and) only one meeting will take place at a given time, and the CR meeting room will be fully disinfected immediately after each meeting,” the DDG said.

Brauner said “for contact tracing purposes, delegates will be asked to register before attending each meeting at the WTO premises. In this respect, the WTO Secretariat servicing the relevant meeting will request delegates to provide name, email, and telephone number.”

Further, he also informed that “when entering the WTO premises to attend meetings at the CR meeting room, the serological test of one staff member showed that the person is positive for COVID-19 antibodies. This brings the overall number of positive cases among the WTO Secretariat to nine.”