Trade ministers will meet in Cameroon on Thursday for crucial discussions on reforming the World Trade Organization, as some diplomats and trade officials warn that \u200bwithout an agreement, countries may set trade rules outside the organisation.<\/p>\n
The four-day gathering in \u200cYaounde comes amid concerns over the impact of the U.S.\u2013Israeli\u00a0war on Iran\u00a0on global trade, following a year of\u00a0tariff\u00a0turmoil triggered by U.S. President\u00a0Donald Trump’s\u00a0weaponization of trade measures.<\/p>\n
“From a business perspective this could yet become \u200bthe worst industrial crisis in living memory,” said John Denton, secretary-general of the International \u200bChamber of Commerce, warning of the impact from energy price spikes caused by \u2060the war, and subsequent food security risks in\u00a0Africa\u00a0due to fertilizer supply disruptions.<\/p>\n
After years of \u200bstalled multilateral deals and a six\u2011year paralysis of the WTO’s dispute settlement system, ministers arrive in \u200bYaounde without a clear reform roadmap amid deep divisions.<\/p>\n
The U.S. supports reforms but is\u00a0resisting\u00a0a detailed work plan, while the EU, Britain, and\u00a0China\u00a0back one, internal reform documents seen by Reuters show. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said \u200bshe expected the talks to be difficult.<\/p>\n
If ministers leave empty-handed, diplomats and officials warned it could \u200bpush members to\u00a0pursue other options\u00a0for trade rulemaking.<\/p>\n
“If we don’t achieve anything concrete, the WTO will lose its \u200cattractiveness \u2060and relevancy,” Swiss Ambassador Erwin Bollinger said ahead of the talks.<\/p>\n
UK trade minister Chris Bryant warned of potential fragmentation if no deal is reached.<\/p>\n
“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 \u200bnew rule book,” Bryant said.<\/p>\n
Talks \u200bare expected to \u2060be tense, with the U.S. and\u00a0India\u00a0set for a showdown over the extension of a moratorium on customs duties for digital downloads.<\/p>\n
U.S. Trade Representative \u200bJamieson Greer, in a draft statement seen in advance by Reuters, is \u200bexpected to \u2060tell members the U.S. is “not interested” in a temporary extension, only a permanent extension. India, however, is likely to maintain its opposition, an official said, while some other countries seek a two-year extension.<\/p>\n
South \u2060Korea\u00a0Trade \u200bMinister Yeo Han\u2011Koo said failure to extend the moratorium would \u200bbe a “big blow” to the WTO and the global economy.<\/p>\n
Semiconductor powerhouse\u00a0Taiwan\u00a0will not attend after host country Cameroon described it \u200bas a province of China.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Trade ministers will meet in Cameroon on Thursday for crucial discussions on reforming the World Trade Organization, as some diplomats and trade officials warn that \u200bwithout an agreement, countries may set trade rules outside the organisation. The four-day gathering in \u200cYaounde comes amid concerns over the impact of the U.S.\u2013Israeli\u00a0war on Iran\u00a0on global trade, following […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14334,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":11,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,32,2362],"tags":[193,3541],"class_list":["post-20278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-central-africa","category-economy","category-featured","tag-cameroon","tag-world-trade-organization-wto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20278"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20279,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20278\/revisions\/20279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}