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Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala , the director-general of the World Trade Organization, said Wednesday that China’s decision to forgo special benefits afforded to developing countries in WTO negotiations marks a “momentous occasion.”
Speaking at The Next 3 Billion summit, the WTO chief said the move eliminates “a bone of contention and opens the door to more reform.” The US and Europe have so far responded positively to the change, she said.
This week’s gesture by Beijing, which has long considered itself a developing nation, could be an effort to curry favor with Washington amid trade talks, as US tariffs force Chinese manufacturers to divert more goods to non-US markets — spurring some resistance in those countries.
Okonjo-Iweala also said that the global trading system has demonstrated “strong resilience at the core” in the face of US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff regime.
“The unilateral actions of the US, yes, did undermine the system and the rules. It’s the biggest disruption in global trade in 80 years,” Okonjo-Iweala said. “The trading system has been knocked, it’s been battered, but it is showing very strong resilience at the core.”
She pointed to a WTO analysis that found that, prior to the tariffs, 80% of world trade was conducted on WTO terms; since Trump’s tariffs took effect, that figure has since dropped to 72%.
“The way I describe it is that we have a stable core of the trading system existing in an unstable equilibrium,” Okonjo-Iweala said, adding that the instability is caused by ongoing trade uncertainty.
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Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance minister, also talked about the need for more diversified trade, including what she called “South-South trade.”
“Some countries have become too overdependent on the US market for demand for their goods, and on China for critical supplies,” she said. “And what we are saying is that overdependence does not build global resilience. We need our members to diversify trade.”
And on the importance of improving intra-Africa trade particularly, the WTO chief honed in on the need to solve the logistical and payment issues that make it expensive to transport goods between countries on the continent.