REFAYET ULLAH MIRDHA, from Yaounde in Cameroon

The 14th WTO Ministerial Conference began yesterday with a call to uphold the multilateral trading system, as rising trade protectionism poses challenges to the free flow of global trade.

At the event, which began in Yaoundé, Cameroon, World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala urged leaders of the 166 member countries to take necessary steps to reform the organisation, established in 1995, so that it can contribute more effectively to the global trading system.

Delivering the inaugural speech at the conference, she informed that prolonged high oil prices resulting from the Middle East conflict could lower the global trade growth by 0.5 percentage points, from 1.9 percent to 1.4 percent.

Economists are forecasting slower 1.9 percent growth for goods trade, with the impact of frontloading gone, previously postponed tariffs kicking in, and reflecting geopolitics, energy prices, and policy uncertainty.

However, she said, “I am full of hope for what we can achieve here for the WTO of the future -- to use this unique opportunity to lay the foundations for a reformed and reinvigorated institution.”

The WTO director-general said it is no secret that the world trading system is experiencing the worst disruptions in the past 80 years.