On June 12, 2022, the 12th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the highest governing body of the WTO, began its work in Geneva, Switzerland. Within the framework of the Conference, the most important decisions are made and priority areas of activity are determined, as well as bilateral and multilateral meetings of representatives of WTO members.

At the opening of the Conference, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala highlighted the difficult period of the event, namely the war in Ukraine, the international security and health crisis, the economic, environmental and geopolitical crises, the threat to food security, and also stressed that it was time to demonstrate that multilateralism worked and that the WTO could help the international community and the people for whom it worked.

During the first thematic session of the Conference on the Challenges of the Multilateral Trade System, the Head of the Delegation of Ukraine, Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine - Trade Representative of Ukraine Taras Kachka stressed the global threat to the effective functioning of the WTO - ongoing russian military aggression against Ukraine. its all-encompassing negative impact on all aspects of international trade. He called on WTO ministers to find consensus on future and development issues, to jointly pursue important goals of sustainable development, and to condemn russia's military aggression, which is diametrically opposed to WTO goals and principles, international law and the foundations of international cooperation.

Currently, during the 12th Ministerial Conference, WTO members are actively working on drafting decisions, agreements and arrangements for approval following the event, namely:

the final document of the conference;

WTO responses to the pandemic and exemptions from the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS);

ensuring food security;

reforming trade in agriculture and, in particular, the provisions of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture in the following areas: domestic support; state reserves for food security purposes; market access; special protective mechanism; export competition; bans and restrictions on exports and trade in the cotton sector;

abolition (restriction) of subsidies in the field of fisheries;

WTO reform, etc.