WTO Ministerial Conference Deadlocks Over US and India Trade Reforms

The 14th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) opened on March 26, 2026, in Yaoundé, Cameroon, amid what Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala described as the worst disruptions to the global trading system in 80 years. The summit serves as the first major gathering since Donald Trump returned to the U.S. presidency, bringing a sharp focus on reciprocity and bilateral trade over traditional multilateralism.

United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced a "new order" in trade policy, arguing that the current global order is "untenable and unsustainable." The U.S. is pushing for the permanent extension of the e-commerce duty moratorium and seeking to rewrite the "most-favoured nation" principle to legitimize tariffs and protect national security. These demands clash with the positions of India and China; Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao defended the most-favoured nation principle as the bedrock of global trade, while India's Minister Piyush Goyal called for a "careful reconsideration" of the e-commerce moratorium due to revenue losses.

Further tensions persist over the WTO's paralyzed dispute settlement system, which the U.S. has blocked since 2019. While the European Union and members of the CPTPP have called for urgent, comprehensive reforms to prevent a "disorderly collapse" of the organization, the U.S. and India have resisted a substantive, detailed workplan. Despite the deadlock over agricultural subsidies and plurilateral decision-making, officials from Norway and the UK reported late in the conference that a concrete reform text remains a possibility.