WTO holds crunch meeting amid growing uncertainty over multilateral system 

The embattled World Trade Organization has met against a backdrop of global economic turmoil sparked by conflict in the Middle East and rising protectionism, facing the threat of “disorderly collapse” if it fails to strike a new deal on global rules.

Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said at the opening session of the body’s 14th ministerial conference in Yaounde, Cameroon, on Thursday that the old “world order” was not coming back, following a year of turmoil marked by United States President Donald Trump’s smashing of international trade rules with his sweeping tariffs.

“We will not get it back … We must look to the future,” said the WTO chief in what has been billed as a make-or-break moment for the organisation. The global trading system was, she said, experiencing the “worst disruptions in the past 80 years”.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that Trump’s aggressive 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 status quo, he said in a video statement, had become “economically unworkable and politically unacceptable”, insisting that the “new world order” would involve agreements between smaller groups, rather than “wasting years and even decades to agree on a lowest common denominator”.

Washington is particularly critical of the WTO’s “most-favoured nation” (MFN) principle, which requires countries to apply the same tariffs to all trading partners. MFN currently governs 72 percent of global trade, but Greer said the system had failed to promote reciprocity within the trade system.

However, China leapt to the defence of the system, with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao telling delegates that MFN must remain the “bedrock” of the global trade system, warning that if member states begin treating each other differently, it would open a “Pandora’s box”.

The European Union signalled it wished to rethink MFN, mainly due to its concerns about China. EU Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic told delegates that Brussels envisaged a “more flexible framework of rules” with agreements among groups of countries.

The US supports reforms, but is resisting a detailed work plan, while the EU, the United Kingdom, and China back one. UK Trade Minister Chris Bryant warned of potential fragmentation if no deal is reached on reforms.

“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 gathering in Yaounde follows years of stalled multilateral trade deals. The current decision-making process, which requires consensus from all members, has frequently been paralysed due to objections from individual countries.