New Delhi: Failure to ensure broader access to Covid-19 vaccines can damage global economic and trade recovery, a report of the World Trade Organization (WTO) warned on Thursday.
The mid-year report of the Director General of the developments related to the trade submitted to members on Thursday called WTO member countries to ensure that the market remains open and predictable.
The Director General of WTO Ngozi Okonjo-Iweal said this report clearly showed that restraints of trade policies by member countries have helped limit the danger to the world economy.
However, some trade restrictions related to the pandemic remain in place and the challenge is to ensure that they are indeed transparent and temporary, he said.
“The report calls WTO members to ensure that the market remains open and predictable, and warns who fail to ensure broader access to Covid-19 vaccines can damage global economic and trade recovery,” WTO said in a statement.
The report noted that because of the plague of Pandemi, 384 trafficking steps related to Covid-19 in the field of goods have been carried out by members, where 248 has a trait that facilitates trade and 136 can be considered limiting trade.
The WTO is a 164-member multi-lateral body based in Geneva framing the rules of global trade and prosecuting trade disputes among member countries.
India has been a member since 1995.
PTI RR