The Fourteenth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization at Yaoundé, Cameroon’s capital, which concluded recently, is being described as a failure. The failure to extend a moratorium on e-commerce — Brazil blocked a bid by the United States of America and others to prolong the mechanism — may be cited as the principal reason behind the bleak assessment. The lack of consensus also meant that the issue of reform was not taken up adequately. Yet, the Global South may have a different take on the outcome of the meeting. The ‘expiry’ of the moratorium — the WTO director-general, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, described the development as such — means that this is the first time that the voice of the developing world has prevailed on this issue. Consequently, nations like Brazil and India would be able to impose tariffs on electronic transmissions, including digital downloads and
streaming. The moratorium had been in place since 1998 and used to be renewed every two years. Brazil’s resistance and success could be interpreted as symptomatic of a broader chasm that divides the WTO.
It is true that 72% of global trade is still conducted under WTO stipulations. But the global body is under pressure on two fronts. As noted by its director-general, the WTO is being plagued by internal challenges. Lack of consensus, the paralysis of its dispute settlement mechanism, and the absence of transparency in the notification of subsidies must count among these. Indeed, only 64 members of the WTO had filed for subsidy notifications: this implies that the majority — 102 members — had chosen to do otherwise. Equally, if not more, worrying is the global picture. Economic uncertainties, the consequences of military confrontations in West Asia and Ukraine as well as the weaponisation of tariffs by a bullish American president have dealt a body blow to the existing trade engagement rules. Ms Okonjo-Iweala concurred with this dim assessment. The multilateral world order has changed fundamentally and irreconcilably, and the challenge before the WTO is to shape global trade in accordance with these transformations. Its own existence depends on that. Unity and consensus are imperatives for the WTO to meet this daunting task. But as the meeting in Cameroon demonstrated, these are in short supply within it.