World Trade Organisation (WTO) Chief called on countries this Thursday to overhaul global trade rules, telling them \u200cthe old world order had gone for good, following a year of turmoil sparked by United States (US) tariffs and wider geopolitical tensions.<\/p>\n
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Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala set out a list of problems facing the WTO, including the paralysis of its dispute-settlement mechanism – at the start of a four-day meeting of the body in Cameroon.<\/p>\n
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“The world order and multilateral system we used to know has irrevocably changed. We will not get it back .We must \u2060look to the future,” the WTO Director-General said.<\/p>\n
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Ahead of the session, some diplomats and trade officials warned that without an agreement on reforms, countries could start abandoning the ideal of a rules-based global trade system, and set their own regulations.<\/p>\n
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The gathering in Yaounde comes amid soaring concerns over the impact of the US\u2013Israeli war on Iran, and follows years of stalled multilateral trade deals.<\/p>\n
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Okonjo-Iweala said the body’s problems over decision-making needed to be tackled. Its current consensus-based model has been regularly stalled by objections from some countries. Some delegates are pushing for the organisation to let groups of members form agreements.<\/p>\n
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She also said there was a lack of transparency over which countries were using subsidies.<\/p>\n
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“Lack of transparency leads to \u200clack \u2060of trust, and that breeds suspicions of unfairness and anti-competitive behaviours,” Okonjo-Iweala told delegates.<\/p>\n
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This contributed to a “vicious cycle” of mistrust which was holding back members from agreeing new rules and reforms, she added.<\/p>\n
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The US supports reforms but is resisting a detailed work plan, while the European Union, Britain, and China back one, internal reform documents seen by Reuters<\/em> show.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “If we don’t achieve anything concrete, the \u2060WTO will lose its attractiveness and relevancy,” Swiss Ambassador Erwin Bollinger said before the session.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n UK Trade Minister Chris Bryant warned of potential fragmentation if no deal is reached.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “My anxiety is if we Ministers don’t get this week right, you might see a \u2060disorderly collapse of the WTO and some people writing a new rulebook,” Bryant said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At the meeting, India is set to oppose US efforts to extend a global ban on cross-border e-commerce duties, which New Delhi says developing \u2060nations should be able to impose.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, in a draft statement seen in advance by Reuters<\/em>, is expected to tell members the US is “not interested” in a temporary extension to the ban, only a permanent extension.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n –Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":30048,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-30047","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"WTO Chief called on countries this Thursday to overhaul global trade rules","published_date":"2026-03-26 18:18:36","news_description":"WTO Chief called on countries this Thursday to overhaul global trade rules","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30049,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30047\/revisions\/30049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=30047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}