Africa has consistently pushed for development to remain at the centre of the multilateral trading system, as exemplified by the Nairobi Declaration from the 2015 Ministerial Conference (MC10) – the first to be hosted in Africa. A decade later, as trade ministers prepare to convene in Yaoundé for MC14, there is growing momentum for reform at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
While WTO reform discussions will extend beyond MC14, meaningful progress on key issues critical to Africa and broader sustainable development objectives, particularly investment facilitation and development-oriented outcomes, is within reach.
The renewed push for reform
The WTO reform agenda comes at a time when international trade is increasingly seen as a tool for economic security, rather than solely economic efficiency. Growing concerns around access and dependency reflect this. On the one hand, export restrictions are deployed against competitors; on the other, structural trade imbalances and economic vulnerabilities arising from extreme dependency on key suppliers has become a central policy concern. Today’s trade policies are more openly employed to pursue non-trade objectives than at any other time in the history of the multilateral trade regime, arguably since the formative years of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT).
