Publisher and events company Global Trade Review has postponed events scheduled up until June “until later in the year” as the spread of COVID-19 restricts business travel and large gatherings.

This morning (Wednesday, March 11), the company said that “due to the increase in concerns around coronavirus (COVID 19), we have taken the difficult decision to postpone all pending GTR events (March-June) until later in the year”.

The postponed events include GTR Russia 2020, GTR UK 2020, GTR East Africa 2020 and GTR US 2020.

GTR said the decision had not “been taken lightly, with a year's worth of planning and hard work having gone into the build-up of each event”.

Sponsors, attendees and other stakeholders were consulted ahead of the decision to postpone.

As well as safety risks involved in large gatherings, GTR cited “significant sponsor and delegate withdrawals [and] travel restrictions implemented globally by organisations of all sizes”.

The London-based firm said it remained “hugely committed to the global trade and export finance market”. It would provide updates in the coming days and “hope to be able to confirm a rescheduled date for each event soon”.