Sawt Falasteen - US lays it on the line as WTO mulls future of global trading

The WTO's ministerial conference -- its supreme decision-making body -- got under way in Yaounde against a backdrop of war in the Middle East, heightened trade tensions and global economic turmoil.

"US trade policy measures are a corrective response to a trading system, embodied by the WTO, that has overseen and contributed to severe and sustained imbalances," said US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

The status quo "has become economically unworkable and politically unacceptable", Greer said in a video statement.

He insisted the "new order" would involve agreements between smaller groups of countries, rather than "wasting years and even decades to agree on a lowest-common denominator".

The 166-member WTO, which struggles to conclude agreements as they must be approved by consensus, is facing a crunch moment on reforming its ways and practices.

Over four days in Cameroon, trade ministers from around the world will try to revitalise an institution weakened by geopolitical strains, stalled negotiations and rising protectionism.

- 'Worst disruptions' -

Yaounde marks the WTO's first ministerial conference since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year, unleashing a barrage of attacks on multilateralism and WTO rules with sweeping tariffs and bilateral trade deals.

The global trading system is experiencing the "worst disruptions in the past 80 years", WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala warned at the opening ceremony.

"The world order and the multilateral system we used to know has irrevocably changed," she said, adding: "We cannot deny the scale of the problems confronting the world today."

Cameroon's Trade Minister Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana said: "Reform must lead to a WTO... capable of meeting today's challenges and restoring confidence in the multilateral trading system."

While all WTO members agree that the global trade body must be reformed, they do not all agree on how to go about it, and the ideal end result.

Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said the WTO was facing an "unprecedented existential challenge" and urged countries to "jointly oppose acts of unilateralism and protectionism".

"We need to come together and stay on course to firmly support the rules-based multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core," he said, in a video statement.

The European Union said it was committed to an open, fair and rules-based trading system.

But EU trade ministers said the WTO was "at a critical juncture" and needed "deep and comprehensive reform" to avoid its relevance diminishing.

- New ways of doing business -

Washington is particularly critical of the WTO's "most-favoured nation" principle, which aims to extend any trade advantage granted to one trading partner to all others, seeking to avoid discrimination.

For now, only the EU has indicated it would be open to considering this issue.

China, like other developing countries, has said it wants this rule to "remain the bedrock of the WTO".

On the other hand, the EU, China and the United States agree on the need to consider a framework within which interested countries can move forward, including through agreements among groups of countries.

But India is opposed to this, preferring to stick with consensus.

No major new agreement is expected in Yaounde, but the WTO hopes that its members will succeed in adopting a roadmap on reform, with the aim of achieving something more concrete further down the line.

WTO ministerial conferences are usually held every other year. Yaounde is the 14th, and the second held in Africa.

L.AbuTayeh--SF-PST