Business Desk
The WTO's 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) in Yaoundé, Cameroon, opened on 26 March with concerns about geopolitical strife and the future of the organization weighing on WTO members.
Nevertheless, Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said she was hopeful the gathering of trade ministers would find the political will to overcome differences and advance work on important topics on the MC14 agenda.
In her remarks to the Opening Session of MC14, DG Okonjo-Iweala acknowledged that the 26-29 March gathering was taking place at a difficult moment for world commerce and the multilateral trading system.
"We cannot deny the scale of the problems confronting the world today," the Director-General said. "It is no secret that the world trading system is experiencing the worst disruptions in the past 80 years."
"The world order and multilateral system we used to know has irrevocably changed," she added. "We will not get it back."
The organization therefore "must look to the future. That means figuring out what worked well in the old order, so we can keep it and build on it. It means figuring out what did not work well, so we can repair it. And it also means identifying the gaps in the renewed order we are shaping, so we can close them."
The Ministerial Conference, normally held every two years, is the highest decision-making body of the WTO. More than 2,000 trade officials, including more than 80 trade ministers, are expected to attend the four-day event, the second time a Ministerial Conference has taken place in Africa.
In welcoming the attendees, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, Cameroon's Minister of Trade and the Chair of MC14, said the WTO has served as the cornerstone of trade and has helped build stability, predictability and transparency in international trade. It has also contributed to improving living standards, expanding economic opportunities and integrating economies into shared global systems.
Nevertheless, the organization must evolve and become more agile and stronger to address issues such as fragmentation and changing trade dynamics, he said. "Reform must lead to a stronger, more effective WTO able to respond to challenges of today and restore confidence in the multilateral trading system," he declared.
The Opening Session included a celebration of the entry into force of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies. Adopted at the WTO's 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) in June 2022, the Agreement entered into force on 15 September 2025 after two-thirds of WTO members submitted their instruments of acceptance.
The Opening Session also heard a special intervention from Türkiye's Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat, who said his country would no longer object to the incorporation of the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement (IFDA) into the WTO legal framework as a plurilateral agreement.
The Director-General acknowledged the difficult task facing the gathered ministers at what she previously described as a "turning point" meeting. Challenges facing the ministers include considering a work programme for advancing discussions on WTO reform, finding common ground on the WTO's e-commerce work programme and extension of the e-commerce moratorium on customs duties, producing guidance on delivering negotiated solutions on agriculture trade post-MC14, reaching decisions aimed at supporting the further integration of least developed countries (LDCs) into the multilateral trading system, considering the incorporation of the IFDA into the WTO rulebook alongside existing plurilateral agreements, and others.
"We have a work-filled and difficult four days ahead of us," she declared. "It is now really up to you members to decide whether you want the organization to continue or you want to pull it apart.
"On my side, I am full of hope," she added. "Hope that collaboration and cooperation will be the order of the day. Hope that we shall all see the bigger strategic issues at stake for our organization and the people we are here to serve, and deliver tangible results. Hope that we will have the courage, in Kwame Nkrumah's famous phrase, to "face forward."
