EU wants pandemic treaty to ban wildlife markets, reward virus detection

FILE PHOTO: Members of staff of the Wuhan Hygiene Emergency Response Team conduct searches at the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where the first Covid-19 coronavirus cluster is believed to have emerged, in the city of Wuhan in China's Hubei Province on Jan 11, 2020. (AFP)

BRUSSELS: The European Union is pushing for a global deal aimed at preventing new pandemics that could include a ban on wildlife markets and incentives for countries to report new viruses or variants, an EU official told Reuters.

International negotiators will meet for the first time on Wednesday to prepare talks for a potential treaty, said the official, who is not authorised to speak to media and so declined to be named.