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Trade and Industry Department The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
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The Twelfth WTO Ministerial Conference

The Twelfth WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12) was held in Geneva, Switzerland from 12 to 17 June 2022, after being postponed twice from 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. WTO Members successfully concluded MC12 and secured multilateral outcomes on a series of key trade initiatives (referred to as the "Geneva Package"), covering WTO response to the current and future pandemics (including a waiver of certain requirements under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) concerning the use of compulsory licences to produce COVID-19 vaccines), food security, electronic commerce, WTO reform, etc. Notably, an Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies was concluded. This is the first WTO agreement that carries an environmental sustainability objective at its core by curtailing harmful fisheries subsidies to help ensure the sustainable use of marine resources.