Okonjo-Iweala acknowledged that tariff tensions, driven by United States unilateral commercial policies during the Donald Trump government, reduced the proportion of goods that are marketed under the most favored nation clause (NMF) of the WTO, because it went from more than 80% to only 72% so far this year. It is undeniable that unilateral tariff actions have a substantial impact.
“And yes, it may fall more. But it is clear that the WTO system is showing considerable resilience,” he said.
However, he warned that there is no collapse. “If they believe that the fundamental rules of the WTO have disappeared and that chaos reigns in trade, they are wrong,” he said. Most of the members, he explained, avoided climbing the conflict and maintained their exchanges in normal terms, which has allowed to retain a stability core in the global commercial network.
The director did not hide that these are pressure times. “Every day I get up is a new challenge,” he confessed. He spoke of leaders and responsible for “shocked” policies, unable to assimilate the new environment. But he also talked about hope. “We have this stable nucleus. I have finished pessimism,” he said, in a message that sought to encourage those present not to stay in paralysis.
The opening of the forum had a different tone from that of previous years. Beyond the coldness of the data, Okonjo-Iweala spoke of the human dimension of trade, the need to make the rules serve for people and the planet. The event brought together members of the WTO, businessmen, unions, farmers and academics to discuss the challenges of a commercial system that remains under pressure.
He recalled that WTO is not just a tariff negotiation space. He cited agreements on sanitary norms, customs assessment and intellectual property, which every day gives certainty to companies and consumers. And although he accepted that the agency needs deep reforms, he insisted that he can still generate new global public goods, as demonstrated by the recent entry into the agreement on fishing subsidies, negotiated for 22 years.
