A four-day ministerial gathering of the World Trade Organisation in Cameroon has ended without ministers securing consensus on two of the most closely watched items on the agenda: the future of the moratorium on customs duties for electronic transmissions and a broader reform programme intended to revitalise the organisation’s negotiating function.
Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala confirmed in the early hours of Monday that time had simply run out as delegations prepared to depart Yaoundé.
“We have run out of time. Some have already caught flights, and some have changed flights, and some will need to go soon,” she said in a statement.
Reflecting on the negotiations, she added: “In short, we are very close to a Yaoundé package of agreements that would be important for Members and the future of the organization. We’ve worked really hard here, and we are very close, but we’re not all the way there yet.”
The meeting brought together representatives from the WTO’s 166 member economies at a moment of heightened strain for the multilateral trading system. Disputes over industrial policy, subsidies and digital trade have intensified in recent years, while the organisation’s appellate body remains non-functional, limiting its capacity to enforce rulings.
Against that backdrop, ministers had been expected to deliver a reform work plan aimed at addressing institutional paralysis and restoring confidence in the rule-based system.
Instead, disagreements over the e-commerce moratorium proved pivotal. The measure, first introduced in 1998, bars members from imposing customs duties on cross-border electronic transmissions. It is due to expire imminently, and businesses in technology, services and digital content sectors have warned that its lapse could create legal uncertainty and disrupt global data flows.
Several officials indicated during the talks that a compromise was forming around a four-year extension, accompanied by a shorter sunset provision to allow governments and firms to prepare for eventual change.
The United States pressed for a significantly longer commitment, reportedly seeking a decade-long extension. At the same time, Brazil objected to prolonging the moratorium altogether, arguing that developing economies should retain greater policy flexibility in the digital sphere.
Okonjo-Iweala urged members to build on the draft texts produced during the week and to continue negotiations at the organisation’s headquarters in Geneva. Her remarks suggested that technical convergence had been achieved on several fronts, but that political clearance remained elusive.
In London, Trade Secretary Peter Kyle expressed disappointment at the stalemate.
“This is not the outcome we wanted. The UK worked hard to deliver the change that WTO needs and the failure to get a collective decision this week is a major setback for global trade,” he said.
Despite the absence of a multilateral accord, a coalition of 66 members signalled their intention to proceed with an alternative pathway to implement an e-commerce agreement among themselves, maintaining the prohibition on digital tariffs within that grouping.
The move reflects a broader trend towards plurilateral initiatives inside the WTO framework, as subsets of members seek progress where full consensus has proven difficult.
Talks are expected to resume in Geneva in the coming months as members attempt to convert draft compromises into binding commitments.
