WTO reform talks advance as General Council reviews negotiations and ministerial follow-ups

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WTO reform talks advance

Highlights

WTO General Council meeting on 5-6 October advanced reform talks, focusing on negotiation pace, meeting formats, and unresolved issues ahead of MC15.
Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala urged concrete reform proposals and warned against sunsetting the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, seeking renewed momentum in agriculture and services.
Adoption of two least developed country decisions in July and planning for the 2026 Global Review of Aid for Trade demonstrate incremental progress amid calls for more effective ministerial follow-through.

Reform agenda and negotiating priorities

As reported by the World Trade Organization, members meeting on 5-6 October focus on how to improve the WTO reform process while maintaining momentum on negotiations that remain stalled in several areas.

General Council Chair Ambassador Clare Kelly of New Zealand says suggestions raised at a 30 September transparency session will help shape the next phase of reform discussions. She says members have made useful proposals on improving the discussion process, and adds that timing remains an important issue as delegations look ahead to the 15th Ministerial Conference, although its dates have not yet been fixed.

Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala says it is encouraging that members are putting forward ideas on WTO reform and urges delegations to submit more concrete proposals. Nearly 60 speakers take the floor on the issue, with debates centering on the core principles of the multilateral trading system, development concerns, participation difficulties for smaller delegations and the need to move from procedural exchanges to substantive outcomes, including on dispute settlement reform.

Kelly says members have voiced clear concerns about the pace and scheduling of meetings, while also supporting further work on alternative meeting formats. She says the reform talks build on groundwork laid by her predecessor and that facilitators will now focus on format options for the next phase of meetings.

Reporting as chair of the Trade Negotiations Committee, Okonjo-Iweala says members remain stuck in several areas but are still determined to keep pushing forward. She calls for new ideas in agriculture, urges members to avoid a sunsetting of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies and says services negotiations offer significant potential to inject new momentum into the broader agenda.

Ministerial follow-through and conference planning

Members also review follow-up to past ministerial conferences, with particular attention on issues left unresolved at the WTO's 14th Ministerial Conference last March. Kelly says the adoption in July of two least developed country decisions shows progress is possible when members work in a solutions-oriented way.

Twenty-six members intervene on this agenda item, with many stressing the need to turn existing ministerial commitments into concrete results. Delegations point in particular to unfinished work on agriculture and development, while several also call for renewed engagement on the e-commerce work programme and moratorium.

Members also highlight the 2026 Global Review of Aid for Trade later this month as part of the WTO's response to shifting development needs and efforts to strengthen trade capacity. On the next ministerial conference, Kelly says members are close to deciding the location of MC15 and notes that a special General Council meeting may be called at short notice to settle the issue.

Cameroon, which hosted MC14, shares its experience in organizing the conference and offers views on how future ministerial meetings can become more effective. Members exchange preliminary views on those proposals, and the chair notes that the discussion links back to the wider WTO reform process.

In our earlier article on how global minimum corporate tax reforms are reshaping competition for foreign direct investment, we noted that tighter anti-avoidance rules are reducing the effectiveness of low-tax regimes as a primary tool to attract FDI. The piece explained that countries are increasingly shifting toward non-tax factors—such as infrastructure, workforce skills, and regulatory predictability—while emerging economies with governance gaps may need faster structural reforms to stay competitive.

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