Onome Amuge
The World Trade Organisation (WTO), has called for far-reaching reforms to make the global trading system more flexible and responsive to emerging realities, arguing that structural rigidity and over-dependence on a few major economies threaten both the legitimacy and resilience of global trade.
Speaking in Riyadh on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference,Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the WTO chief acknowledged that the United States’ longstanding criticism of the organisation’s inflexible rules was not without merit.
“The US feels the WTO is not flexible enough. It’s too inflexible. You can’t get decisions made quickly because it’s a consensus decision-making system with 166 members. Consensus is good because it gives the smallest member the same power as the largest. But when it becomes unanimity, it turns into a veto power, and that’s not sustainable,” Okonjo-Iweala said.
The WTO, founded in 1995 as the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), operates on a consensus-based model that was originally designed to give all member nations equal voice in shaping global trade rules. But in practice, this model has slowed decision-making, leaving the institution struggling to adapt to 21st-century realities such as digital trade, artificial intelligence (AI), and shifting geopolitical alliances.
Okonjo-Iweala said a key part of reform would be allowing willing coalitions of member states to advance new agreements rather than waiting for all 166 members to agree. This flexible approach, she said, would encourage innovation and restore dynamism to the rulemaking process.
Beyond institutional reform, Okonjo-Iweala identified what she called a deeper structural weakness in the global trade system.
“The trading system was built for interdependence, not over-dependence. Too many countries are dependent on the US for demand and on China for supply. That is a vulnerability, not a strength,” she said.
The WTO DG noted that global supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic and subsequent geopolitical tensions had exposed the fragility of this imbalance. She argued that diversification of supply chains was no longer just an economic strategy but a global security imperative.
In her view, Africa stands out as the most promising alternative, consisting a vast, youthful continent rich in resources and ripe for industrial integration.
“Africa has the raw materials, the critical minerals, and a young, dynamic population of 1.4 billion people. By 2050, one in five of the world’s working-age population will be African. This is where the next wave of global productivity can come from,” she said.
The WTO has in recent years increased its engagement with African economies, particularly around trade facilitation, investment in digital infrastructure, and regional integration through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Okonjo-Iweala said the continent’s growing connectivity offers a chance to reshape trade flows and reduce global concentration risks.
Despite a backdrop of rising protectionism, trade disputes, and technological decoupling, Okonjo-Iweala maintained that the WTO-led multilateral system has shown surprising resilience.
The WTO recently upgraded its forecast for global trade growth in 2025 to 2.4 percent, up from an earlier projection of 0.9 percent following new US tariffs on Chinese goods.
Okonjo-Iweala attributed the upward revision to strong demand for AI-related technologies and pre-emptive stockpiling by businesses anticipating tariff hikes.
On the domestic front, Okonjo-Iweala said Nigeria’s macroeconomic stabilisation efforts, including moves toward exchange rate unification and fiscal discipline, were beginning to yield results. However, she cautioned that stabilisation was only the first step.
“The government now needs to look at growth, because people only feel that the economy is working for them when it grows and that growth spreads to those who don’t have,” she said.
Okonjo-Iweala emphasised that policy attention must now shift to supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs), expanding access to credit, and unlocking Nigeria’s agricultural potential.
She said institutions like the Bank of Industry (BoI) should be strengthened to channel affordable funding to productive sectors.
