Overview
- Ministers from 166 WTO members opened four days of talks in Yaoundé on Thursday after Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the old multilateral order has irrevocably changed.
- The United States is pressing a reform plan that rethinks the most-favoured-nation rule, which gives all partners equal tariff treatment, seeks easier paths for plurilateral deals, and curbs the WTO Secretariat’s role.
- Digital trade is a flashpoint as Washington pushes to make the ban on customs duties for electronic transmissions permanent, India opposes any extension, and some members seek two years to keep the moratorium in place.
- Developing country coalitions defend consensus decision-making and Special and Differential Treatment that gives them longer timelines and policy space, with China calling MFN the bedrock and India prioritising food-stockholding, stronger fishery rules for distant fleets, and a restored two-tier dispute system.
- Diplomats warn that failure could push countries to write rules outside the WTO as the appeals system has been frozen since 2019, and business groups caution that war-driven energy and fertilizer shocks threaten trade and food security in Africa.