MINISTRY OF FOREIGN TRADE: CLOSING OF THE MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION-WTO IN YAOUNDÉ, CAMEROON
.webp)
Meeting from March 26 to 29, 2026 in Yaoundé, Cameroon, the Trade Ministers of 166 member countries of the World Trade Organization-WTO adopted a number of decisions including the promotion of win-win multilateral trade between developed countries, developing countries and least developed countries-LDCs, the entry into force of the Fisheries Subsidy Agreement, the extension of the moratorium until 15th Ministerial Conference to make
migrate less developed countries to e-commerce; but also, the intensification of technical work to lead to the effective establishment of the Agreement on the Facilitation of Investments for Development, like the Agreement on the Facilitation of Trade of the WTO.
Also a broad consensus was found by the Trade Ministers of the planet to carry out reforms at the WTO level, in certain areas including decision-making, development and special and differential treatment as well as questions of equal conditions of competition and the settlement of disputes, without forgetting the promotion of agriculture; recommendations formulated for this purpose and which will be evaluated at the 15th WTO Ministerial Conference which will take place in Geneva, Switzerland.
At this 14th WTO Ministerial Conference, the voice of the Democratic Republic of Congo was raised higher by its Minister of Foreign Trade, Julien Paluku Kahongya, who took an active part in the various strategic meetings, and in which he made concrete and realistic proposals for fair multilateral trade, with the establishment of the Agreement on the Facilitation of Investments for Development; a strategy which will allow the DRC to attract more investments to diversify its economy and increase the volume of its exports, in short, the same thing for all less developed countries, he added during an interview given to the national and international press
Note that Minister Julien Paluku Kahongya was at the head of a large Congolese delegation made up of the Ambassador of the DRC to the WTO in Geneva and experts from the Ministries of Foreign Trade, Finance, Digital Economy, Foreign Affairs and Agriculture, but also those of Public Establishments and Services including the DGDA, ANAPEX, OCC and the ARPTC.
