Nobody knows how long the COVID-19 crisis will continue, but humanity will have to face similar challenges and must use this time to prepare for them, said the outgoing head of the World Trade Organization on Thursday in his farewell address.
WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo spoke to journalists in Geneva after farewell remarks to the General Council, the organization's highest decision-making body, during a time of plunging world trade, trade tensions, and problems with the dispute settlement body.
"There are big variables” in addressing the pandemic, he said.
"We don't know how long it's going to last. We don't know how effective we're going to be in fighting it. We don't know how quickly it will spread or be controlled."
He added: "We don't know how far away from a vaccine we are and an effective one. All those things are extremely important."
He said similar crises will follow the pandemic, so the world must use this time to get ready.
"And it's not for the WTO only; it is for international organizations and the international community as a whole; how do we prepare for the next one? We need to have mechanisms in place that will kick in automatically," said Azevedo.