Will WTO member states be able to reform the organisation?

Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) meet from March 26–29 in Yaoundé, Cameroon, for the 14th Ministerial Conference, the body’s main decision-making forum. A reform proposal is on the agenda for the negotiations, which will take place in a tense geopolitical climate. The 14th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) – the institution’s main decision-making body – opens on March 26 in Yaoundé, Cameroon, amid trade tensions and as the war in the Middle East disrupts commerce and threatens to slow global economic growth. The WTO, whose rules are intended to provide a framework and a degree of predictability for trade, has undergone a severe test at the hands of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, which imposed high tariffs on several countries, including Switzerland, in an effort to secure more favourable bilateral agreements. Confronted with this situation, the Geneva-based body was powerless. “The status quo is not an option,” the ...