YAOUNDE: World Trade Organisation talks collapsed on Monday without reaching an agreement on a reform plan or extending a moratorium on e-commerce, adding further pressure on the trade body, which is becoming increasingly marginalised by economic nationalism.

The four-day ministerial talks in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, ended in the early hours, with Brazil blocking a bid by the US and others to extend a moratorium on duties on electronic transmissions such as digital downloads and streaming.

“It marks another crack in the foundations of the WTO system,” said Andrew Wilson, Deputy Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce, urging delegates to renew the moratorium before states hit digital services with new charges.

Expectations for progress had been low before the talks, but there were hopes the moratorium — which has been regularly renewed since 1998 — would at least be extended.

US and allies fail to secure long-term moratorium amid rising economic nationalism

That ultimately proved impossible. Trade ministers could not agree to extend it beyond two years, which was not enough for the United States, diplomats said.

US officials and business groups voiced frustration, and Britain’s Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle called the failure to reach consensus a “major setback for global trade”. The talks were deemed a test of the WTO’s relevance after a year of huge trade turmoil and more recent disruptions due to the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Still, a subset of 66 members did agree to sidestep previous hurdles to usher in the world’s first baseline deal on digital trade rules among participants.

‘Spaghetti blow’

Efforts to rebuild the WTO’s predictable trade terms are creating “a spaghetti bowl of free trade agreements, bilateral initiatives, and plurilaterals,” said Dmitry Grozoubinski, executive director of the Geneva Trade Platform think tank.

Agreeing on an e-commerce moratorium was seen as key to securing US support for the WTO, which, under President Donald Trump, has retreated from global multilateral bodies.

WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the trade body hoped the moratorium could be restored and that Brazil and the US were trying to reach an agreement on it.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2026