The 14th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization concludes with progress on multiple issues

People’s Finance News, March 30: In the early hours of March 30 local time, the 14th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization in Yaoundé, Cameroon, concluded. During this four-day meeting, representatives from member countries engaged in in-depth discussions on multiple topics, including WTO reform and the e-commerce agreement, and adopted two decisions previously approved by members in Geneva: one aimed at improving the integration of small economies into the multilateral trading system; the other to strengthen the effective and precise implementation of the special and differential treatment provisions in the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade. However, the conference failed to reach an agreement on the “Yaoundé Package,” which includes the Yaoundé ministerial declaration on WTO reform and the work program, the ministerial decision on e-commerce, and the package for the least developed countries. These unresolved issues and the texts of the agreements will be taken back to the WTO headquarters in Geneva and are planned to be finalized at the next General Council meeting. (CCTV News)