Yaounde: Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, warned that the global trading system is facing its worst disruptions in eight decades.

According to Qatar News Agency, speaking at the opening of the WTO Ministerial Conference in Yaounde, Cameroon, Okonjo-Iweala said these disruptions reflect broader imbalances that are destabilizing the global system established after World War II. She added that the global system and the multilateral framework they once relied on have changed fundamentally and irreversibly. They cannot deny the scale of the challenges the world faces today.

She noted that even before the outbreak of war in the Middle East, these challenges had already affected trade in energy, fertilizers, and food products, making it increasingly difficult for governments and international institutions to manage escalating geopolitical tensions, environmental pressures, and rapid technological developments, while raising doubts about the effectiveness of the multilateral approach.

The four-day ministerial conference will focus on strategies to revitalize WTO, which has been weakened by geopolitical tensions, stalled negotiations, and rising protectionism, with the war in the Middle East casting a shadow over global trade.

This marks the second WTO ministerial conference held in Africa, following the 2015 meeting in Nairobi, with such meetings convened every two years.