Regarding 12th WTO Ministerial conference in Nur-Sultan (Kazakhstan)

March 12, 2020, Nur-Sultan

As Minister of trade and integration informed: "The current situation with the spread of the COVID-19 cannot but cause concern. We see that most countries in the world are already taking certain steps to prevent the spread of coronavirus and protect public health. So, today there was news about the closure of flight connection between the United States and Europe".

The day before, the Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, issued a Statement announcing the coronavirus pandemic. Against the background of the current situation, as well as this statement, the governments of most countries of the world make decisions to cancel major international events. For example, the St. Petersburg economic forum and the Geneva motor show have been canceled, and the issue of moving the Summer Olympic games to Tokyo is being considered. The government of Kazakhstan also decided to cancel major international events, such as the Astana economic forum, meetings of bilateral Intergovernmental commissions with Korea, Jordan, India and a number of other countries.

It should be noted that the 12th WTO Ministerial conference ( June 8-11) is planned to be held in Nur Sultan in June this year . The decision to hold such a large-scale international event was unanimously adopted by WTO members during the meeting of the General Council in 2018.

Bakyt Sultanov, Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan also commented: "The decision on changing the time or place of this event can only be taken by the General Council of the WTO. In connection with certain concerns caused by the current situation with coronavirus, as well as the WHO statement, we have instructed the permanent mission of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Geneva to hold appropriate consultations with the Secretariat and members of the World Trade Organization on the issue of holding the 12th WTO Ministerial conference. Based on the results of the consultations, a decision will be made on the possible convening of an extraordinary meeting of the WTO General Council to decide on the date of the Conference".