MINISTRY OF FOREIGN TRADE: MEETING OF AFRICAN TRADE MINISTERS WITH CHINA ON THE SIDE OF THE 14TH MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION-WTO WHICH OPENS THIS THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2026 IN YAOUNDÉ, CAMEROON
Africa, which constitutes a large market, must benefit from multilateral trade, and to achieve this, China has just promised to make funding available to promote agriculture and the industrialization of the continent, for the local processing of its natural resources, but also, the construction of infrastructure to facilitate trade.
This promise was made by the Chinese Minister of Commerce, Wang Wentao, during the high-level meeting on the acceleration of African industrialization, thanks to Chinese investments, organized this Wednesday, March 25, 2026 in Yaoundé by the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, and this,
on the sidelines of the 14th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization-WTO, which opens this Thursday in the Cameroonian capital
The Democratic Republic of Congo, through the Minister of Foreign Trade, Julien Paluku Kahongya, pleaded for the consolidation of economic and commercial cooperation between Kinshasa and Beijing, while emphasizing the development of Special Economic Zones, the local processing of minerals and agricultural products to thus increase the volume of commercial exchanges, but also, allowing the DRC to benefit from Chinese expertise on
e-commerce and the digitalization of pre-customs clearance, customs clearance and post-customs clearance procedures for goods.
The commercial partnership signed with China which allows certain products made in DRC including cocoa, coffee, pepper, soy and sesame to enter the Chinese market without payment of customs duties, requires support in mastering Chinese standards, he added.
From the top of this platform, the Director General of the World Trade Organization-WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, insisted on the implementation of strategies by African countries for win-win trade cooperation.
Shortly before, the Foreign Trade Ministers of the Least Developed Countries - LDCs met to see how to implement public policies to make their products competitive on world markets.
Here, the Minister of Foreign Trade, Julien Paluku Kahongya pleaded for the promotion of industrialization to give added value to products, economic diversification and inclusive growth as well as win-win multilateral trade
Let us note that the Ministers of Commerce of the world are in Yaoundé for this major business meeting
