Online Reporter
THE embattled World Trade Organisation (WTO) has convened amid global economic instability driven by conflict in the Middle East and rising protectionism, with warnings that the body risks a “disorderly collapse” if it fails to agree on new global trade rules.
Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told delegates at the opening of the WTO’s 14th ministerial conference in Yaounde, Cameroon, on Thursday that the old “world order” was gone, following a turbulent year marked by United States President Donald Trump’s extensive tariffs that disrupted long-standing trade norms. “We will not get it back . . . We must look to the future,” she said, describing the current disruptions as the “worst in the past 80 years”.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer defended Washington’s aggressive approach, arguing that Trump’s trade policies were “a corrective response to a trading system, embodied by the WTO that has overseen and contributed to severe and sustained imbalances”.
The existing system, he said in a video statement, had become “economically unworkable and politically unacceptable”, insisting the emerging “new world order” would rely on smaller group agreements rather than “wasting years and even decades to agree on a lowest common denominator”.
A key point of contention is the WTO’s “most favoured nation” (MFN) principle, which requires equal tariff treatment for all member states. Although MFN governs nearly three-quarters of global trade, Greer argued it had failed to ensure reciprocity. China rejected this position, with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao insisting the principle must remain the “bedrock” of the multilateral system and warning that treating countries differently would open a “Pandora’s box”.
The European Union signalled support for revisiting MFN, largely due to concerns over China’s trade practices. EU Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic told delegates the bloc was considering a “more flexible framework of rules”, built around agreements among coalitions of countries.
While the US supports reforms, it is resisting calls for a detailed work plan. The EU, the United Kingdom and China back such a roadmap. UK Trade Minister Chris Bryant cautioned that failure to agree could trigger a breakdown of the global trade body.
“My anxiety is if we ministers don’t get this week right, you might see a disorderly collapse of the WTO and some people writing a new rulebook,” he said.
The meeting in Yaounde comes after years of stalled negotiations, with the WTO’s consensus-based-decision-making system frequently paralysed by objections from individual member states. – Al Jazeera
