Sixty-six members, covering approximately 70% of global trade, have adopted a pathway to bring into force the WTO Agreement on Electronic Commerce through interim arrangements while continuing to work towards its incorporation into the WTO legal framework of rules, co-convenors announced on 28 (...)
Investment in the cotton, textiles and garments sector can help transform economic development in Central and West Africa, said speakers at a high-level event on the eve of the WTO's 14th Ministerial Conference in Yaoundé, Cameroon, on 25 March and at the opening ceremony on 26 March. Ministers, (...)
The government of Australia has committed an additional AUD 2 million (approximately CHF 1.2 million) to the WTO Fisheries Funding Mechanism, known as the Fish Fund, to assist developing and least-developed members in implementing the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies. This contribution builds (...)
On 27 March 2026, the European Union notified the WTO’s Committee on Safeguards that it had initiated, on the same day (27 March 2026), a safeguard investigation on imports of grain-oriented electrical steel.
A high-level meeting dedicated to reinforcing cooperation and trade relations between Africa and Latin America was held on the margins of the WTO's 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) on 27 March. In a keynote address, Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala highlighted the importance of this (...)
The WTO's 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) in Yaoundé, Cameroon, opened on 26 March with concerns about geopolitical strife and the future of the organization weighing on WTO members. Nevertheless, Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said she was hopeful the gathering of trade ministers would (...)
At the opening of the WTO's 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) in Yaoundé on 26 March, parliamentarians and business leaders handed over two documents to the MC14 Chair, Cameroon’s Minister of Trade Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, and WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala calling for urgent (...)
On 26 March, the opening day of the 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14), the six co-coordinators of the Dialogue on Plastics Pollution and Environmentally Sustainable Plastics Trade (DPP) — Australia, Barbados, China, Ecuador, Fiji and Morocco — presented a ministerial statement and a package of (...)
The United Kingdom has contributed GBP 500,000 to the WTO's Global Trust Fund and GBP 1 million to the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) — support totalling approximately CHF 1.56 million — to enhance the capacity of developing economies, including least developed countries (LDCs), (...)
In two separate contributions, the government of China has pledged USD 1.1 million (close to CHF 900,000) for 2026 to support the WTO’s Least-Developed Countries (LDCs) and Accessions Programme (also known as the China Programme) as well as the general fund that supports WTO technical (...)