The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has urged members of the global trade body to use the platform for dialogue and to engage on the issues contributing to the current global trade tensions.
The Director-General was speaking at the first 2025 meeting of the WTO’s General Council in Geneva, Switzerland.
Her admonition came as China’s Ambassador to the WTO, Li Chenggang voiced strong concern over the US’ unilateral imposition of tariffs and their harmful effects, calling on her to remove these measures and urged all parties to take meaningful action to uphold the rules-based multilateral trading system, which resonated deeply with the audience.
Addressing the Council, Okonjo-Iweala said: “It is imperative that we continue to strengthen the multilateral trading system, ensuring that it remains a source of stability and opportunity for all members.
“The WTO was created precisely to manage times like these — to provide a space for dialogue, prevent conflicts from spiralling, and support an open, predictable trading environment.
“Let us make full use of this platform to engage with one another in good faith, address concerns constructively and calmly, and explore cooperative solutions that uphold and enhance the balance of global trade relations.”
A total of 32 members took the floor following her remarks.
Overall, members emphasised the importance of the WTO in fostering global economic growth and development, particularly for developing and least-developed countries.
Many who took the floor called for restraint in actions that could undermine the system and stressed the importance of upholding the WTO’s principles and rules.
Okonjo-Iweala said she has been meeting with WTO members to discuss the broader geopolitical landscape and explore how the organisation could approach the situation.
“The key message I have shared is that amid the current uncertainties, we must maintain cool heads and remain open to dialogue,” she said.
She informed members that Secretariat staff was upgrading the WTO’s Tariff Analysis Online database based on member feedback.
The new database, to be called WTO Tariff and Trade Data, would be launched in the WTO’s Committee On Market Access on March 4.
“This will be a much more user-friendly system that will facilitate tariff and trade analysis,” she said. As you consider today’s emerging tariff issues, the Secretariat is there to assist any member requiring assistance in analysing the tariff situation.”
In her intervention, Okonjo-Iweala underlined the importance of using the current situation to push ahead with reform of the WTO.
“I encourage all of you to view this moment as an inflection point — an opportunity to think more strategically and purposefully about what we want from this organisation and how we can make it more results-driven,” she added.
According to her, leaders, ministers and stakeholders she had met with in recent weeks, “expect the WTO to address longstanding issues and respond to today’s global trade landscape … it’s time to return to the negotiating table in earnest.”
This means making substantial progress in the agriculture negotiations a top priority. It also means members should use early 2025 to ensure the entry into force of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies; make a concerted effort to wrap up the second wave of the fisheries subsidies negotiations; reach a mutually agreeable solution regarding the incorporation of the plurilateral Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement (IFDA) and the Agreement on Electronic Commerce into the WTO legal framework; continue progress on dispute settlement reform; and move ahead on development issues, she said.
Noting that “the world has changed,” Okonjo-Iweala added: “We cannot come here to continue doing the same things we’ve been doing.”
Meanwhile, the Chinese Ambassador to the WTO Li Chenggang pointed out that the US’ unilateral and arbitrary tariffs was affecting China and other trading partners, and have caused global “tariff shocks.”
He highlighted that such actions blatantly violate WTO rules, heighten economic uncertainty, disrupt global trade, and could even undermine the multilateral trading system built on rules.
He stated that China firmly opposed these actions and urged the US to correct its course. Ndubuisi Francis
