WTO talks in Yaounde ends in failure with no significant deals

YAOUNDE

Delegates attend the WTO ministerial conference in Yaounde on March 26, 2026. (Photo by AFP)

High-level WTO talks in Cameroon ended early Monday with no significant agreements and a failure to extend a years-long ban on customs duties for e-commerce, after deep divisions blocked a deal.

As a consequence, the World Trade Organization moratorium that since 1998 has exempted cross-border digital transmissions from duties expired Monday.

This does not mean tariffs will automatically be imposed, but it deals a heavy blow to developed countries and the U.S. in particular.

Trade ministers and other delegates meeting in Cameroon's capital Yaounde also failed to meet even meagre expectations on deals towards much-needed reform of the WTO and on agriculture, among other issues.

"We worked hard," WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala insisted as the WTO's 14th ministerial conference wrapped up around 1 a.m. Monday, more than 12 hours after schedule.

"We simply ran out of time."

The disappointment was palpable following the talks, which took place against a backdrop of heightened trade tensions and global economic turmoil linked to the Middle East war.

"The failure of WTO members to reach a concrete political agreement in Yaounde is particularly concerning at a time of real strain on the global economy", International Chamber of Commerce chief John Denton said in a statement.

"This is not the outcome we wanted," British Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle said, decrying "a major setback for global trade."

The four days of negotiations on March 28 entered a phase of intense "horse-trading" on various issues, observers said.

Early March 29, bleary-eyed negotiators had emerged from an all-night session with a draft text in hand, indicating a minimal deal on reform was in reach, according to diplomatic sources and experts.

That prospect evaporated when Brazil intervened at the last minute, blocking a text on the e-commerce moratorium to protest the lack of progress in separate talks on agriculture, the sources told AFP.

"Agriculture is the sector that has seen less progress during the WTO's 30 years of existence. We cannot allow this to continue," Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira had told the gathering on March 28..

The 166-member WTO has been trying for years to establish a programme of work for negotiations on agriculture, but the issue remains highly sensitive in many countries.

Going into Yaounde, countries had set the bar low, only hoping to issue a joint declaration aimed at laying the groundwork for future negotiations.

Countries also failed to reach an agreement on the priority issue of WTO reform.

Ministers and delegates had been tasked with developing an action plan to revitalize a WTO weakened by geopolitical strains, stalled negotiations and rising protectionism.

The organisation, which struggles to reach agreements because of the requirement for consensus, must undergo far-reaching reforms to emerge from a deep crisis that has raised questions over its central role in regulating international trade.

But the completion of any agreement on advancing on reform was contingent on resolving another, recurring issue.

For nearly three decades, every WTO ministerial, its biennial decision-making body, has negotiated extending the moratorium exempting electronic transmissions from customs duties.

After allowing it to lapse Monday, countries will continue trying to negotiate a deal on the issue back at WTO headquarters in Geneva.

Okonjo-Iweala tried to play down the issue, pointing out to journalists that "this is not the first time that the moratorium has lapsed."

It had happened at the 1999 Seattle ministerial, before the moratorium was reinstated at Doha two years later.

But back then, countries did not rush to collect duties on electronic transmissions, she said.

"It takes time to set up, so you usually don't see anything, and then we're able to restore it."