G20 leaders must help WTO make November conference a success: WTO director

The head of the World Trade Organization said on Friday she hoped a major ministerial conference next month would make progress on issues such as harmful fisheries subsidies and intellectual property rights, and urged G20 leaders in Rome for their help.

"I hope that G20 leaders will speak to the trade ministers to ensure that the ministerial conference is a success," WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said at Rome's LUISS University a day before a summit of leaders of the world's biggest rich and emerging countries.

The global trade body set up in 1995 is facing questions about its relevance, and Okonjo-Iweala, who took up her post in March, is under pressure to clinch a deal at the Nov. 30-Dec. 3 ministerial conference.

She said she hoped an agreement could be reached "in one or two of the negotiations that have been going on for 20 years, on harmful fisheries subsidies... and intellectual property".

A temporary waiver to intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines and therapies and curbing fisheries subsidies are among key issues to be discussed at the meeting in Geneva.