Jauhn Etienne Villaruel

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<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17744946789771774330409531AFP__20260323__A4CF6NQ__v1__HighRes__IndiaKashmirWarIranUsIsrael_cropped_processed_by_imagy.webp" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Kashmiri Muslims conduct a donation drive for war-stricken Iran, collecting cash, gold, and other contributions amid the Middle East conflict, on the outskirts of Srinagar on March 23, 2026. Photo by Tauseef Mustafa/AFP<br/></span></span></span></div><p>CAMEROON — The World Trade Organization&#x27;s 166 members appeared deeply divided as ministers gathered in the Cameroonian capital for a key conference starting Thursday, amid global economic turmoil linked to the Middle East war.</p><p>Over four days, WTO members will try to revitalize an institution weakened by geopolitical tensions, stalled negotiations and rising protectionism -- against the backdrop of a war that poses a serious threat to international trade.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2026/3/12/philippines-says-open-trade-must-continue-in-asean-amid-mideast-conflict-1838" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Philippines says open trade must continue in ASEAN amid Mideast conflict</a></div><p>The atmosphere ahead of the meeting was &quot;tense&quot;, a Western diplomatic source told AFP, asking not to be named.</p><p>&quot;I think that&#x27;s because it&#x27;s tense in the global trading system.&quot;</p><p>WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala called Wednesday for the Yaounde meeting to &quot;launch the next chapter of the multilateral trading system&quot;.</p><p>She slammed &quot;the unilateralism we have been seeing&quot;, decrying the &quot;collective failure&quot; of WTO members over the years to confront their concerns and frustrations.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;A PIVOTAL MOMENT&#x27;</strong></div><div><strong></strong><strong><br/></strong></div><p>The WTO ministerial conference, its supreme decision-making body, is usually held every other year.</p><p>Ahead of the 14th edition (MC14), a number of countries expressed hope that the conference could mark a turning point for the organization.</p><p>Two years after the WTO&#x27;s last ministerial conference in Abu Dhabi failed to make meaningful progress on key issues like fisheries and agriculture, member states face even stauncher challenges.</p><p>Their main task will be to develop a plan towards reforming a WTO that has proven to be powerless in the face of rising protectionism and largely incapable of negotiating new agreements.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2026/3/19/nato-allies-in-talks-on-best-way-to-re-open-hormuz-strait-0116" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NATO allies in talks on &#x27;best way&#x27; to re-open Hormuz strait</a></div><p>European Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic called Monday for &quot;serious&quot; reform of the organization, insisting that &quot;the level playing field, overcapacity and market policies must be better tackled than in the past&quot;.</p><p>Britain also said in a recent submission that it believes &quot;the WTO is at a pivotal moment&quot;, warning that &quot;without reform it will slide into irrelevance&quot;.</p><p>Several members are calling for modifying the organization&#x27;s decision-making procedures, which have long been limited by a rule requiring consensus among all members.</p><p>There are also calls to overhaul rules related to special treatment of developing countries and achieving a level playing field for trade, as well as a push to restore the organization&#x27;s crippled dispute settlement system.</p><p>But national interests diverge sharply, making any diplomatic breakthrough in Yaounde uncertain, according to experts and diplomats.</p><p>&quot;I very much doubt that there would be any actual agreement at MC14 on any of the reform issues,&quot; Stuart Harbinson of the European Centre for International Political Economy think-tank in Brussels told AFP.</p><p>&quot;The membership is too divided on the substantive issues.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><span style="background-color:transparent"><strong>TRUMP&#x27;S RETURN</strong></span></div><div><span style="background-color:transparent"><br/></span></div><div><span style="background-color:transparent">Yaounde marks the WTO&#x27;s first ministerial conference since US President </span><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2025/2/21/trump-tariffs-leave-wto-adrift-in-eye-of-the-storm-1648" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color:transparent" target="_blank">Donald Trump</a><span style="background-color:transparent"> returned to the White House last year, unleashing a barrage of attacks on multilateralism and WTO rules with sweeping tariffs and bilateral trade deals.</span></div><p>&quot;The WTO needs to change if it intends to have any relevance as the international trading system transitions to focus on reciprocity and balance,&quot; US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Monday.</p><p>Preparatory discussions in Geneva, where the WTO is based, revealed that some countries -- the United States and India in particular -- were not satisfied with the proposed roadmap.</p><p>Washington is particularly critical of the WTO&#x27;s &quot;most-favored nation&quot; (MFN) principle, which aims to extend any trade advantage granted to one trading partner to all others, in a bid to avoid discrimination.</p><p>But China, like other developing countries, has said it wants this rule to &quot;remain the bedrock of the WTO&quot;.</p><p>&quot;We need a rules-based system, not a power-based system,&quot; a Chinese diplomatic source told AFP.</p><p>WTO reform has become more urgent with the prolonged paralysis of the organization&#x27;s dispute settlement system.</p><p>The appeals body has been frozen since 2019 by the United States blocking the appointment of new judges.</p><p>For many, however, the stakes in Yaounde go beyond simply adopting a roadmap.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s about determining whether the WTO still has a role to play in its core mission, which is to reduce barriers to trade at a time when there&#x27;s a tendency to increase them,” former WTO chief Pascal Lamy told AFP.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse<br/></strong></div><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yka6lvhVc7U?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>The World Trade Organization's 166 members appeared deeply divided as ministers gathered in the Cameroonian capital for a key conference starting Thursday, amid global economic turmoil linked to the Middle East war.</p>

The World Trade Organization's 166 members appeared deeply divided as ministers gathered in the Cameroonian capital for a key conference starting Thursday, amid global economic turmoil linked to the Middle East war.

WTO mulls future of global trade under cloud of Middle Eeast war

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WTO mulls future of global trade under cloud of Middle Eeast war

Agnes Pedrero,

Agence France-Presse

Published March 26, 2026 11:15 AM PHT

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World Trade Organization

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