According to Geneva-based sources, the World Trade Organization WTO was the first major diplomatic casualty of the new coronaviruses variant on Friday when it postponed its first ministerial meeting in four years due to the deteriorating health situation.
Ministers from WTO members were due to gather next week for a meeting that was widely seen as a test of the relevance of the WTO.
The B has been classified by the World Health Organisation. In South Africa, a variant of 529 has been detected as a variant of concern that it may spread more quickly than other forms of the virus.
Scientists are trying to find out if it is vaccine resistant.
Switzerland, home to the WTO, has imposed a ban on direct flights from South Africa and the surrounding region, and imposes test and quarantine requirements on travel from other countries, including Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel.
The Geneva-based trade body had planned a meeting in person, but the new restrictions meant that delegations of large players such as South Africa and the Brussels-based European Commission would have to be limited to a largely virtual presence.
Even before the postponement, the prospects were not bright.
The WTO has only managed one update of its global rules in its 27 year history, the red tape-cutting Trade Facilitation Agreement, and its 164 members looked far from agreement in its most active talks - on reducing fishing subsidies and spreading COVID 19 vaccines more widely.
The organization has to demonstrate that it is capable of having success, said Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in an interview for the upcoming Reuters Next conference.