By Saidu Jalloh
Yaoundé, Cameroon | Thursday, 26 March 2026 The World Trade Organization (WTO) has officially opened the 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) in Yaoundé, Cameroon, bringing together about 3,000 delegates from member countries at the Yaoundé Conference Centre. The conference runs from 26 to 29 March.
Sierra Leone’s delegation is led by Mr. Alpha Ibrahim Sesay, Minister of Trade and Industry, alongside Ambassador Dr. Lansana Gberie, Sierra Leone’s Permanent Representative to the WTO in Geneva. The ministerial conference is chaired by *Cameroon’s Minister of Trade, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana.
The opening ceremony was attended by senior government officials, including the Prime Minister of Cameroon and the Vice President of The Gambia, and featured cultural performances by traditional dance groups.
While the gathering signals diplomatic momentum, delegates are also confronting mounting concerns over the stalled progress of WTO negotiations often described within the organisation as efforts toward “convergence.” Discussions are expected to cover long-running and sensitive areas including *WTO reform, agriculture, e-commerce, dispute settlement, and decision-making under the principle of *consensus.
Ahead of MC14, the United States Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, criticized the WTO in a statement, saying the organisation reflects “a status quo that has become economically unworkable and politically unacceptable,” highlighting widening divisions within parts of the global trade system.
The atmosphere sharply contrasts with the relative optimism surrounding the 12th Ministerial Conference in Geneva in June 2022, when agreements were reached under what was dubbed the “Geneva Package.” Those outcomes included progress on fisheries subsidies, food security, COVID-19-related measures, and elements of e-commerce, among other issues guided at the time by WTO Director-General *Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
ECOWAS Alignment at the Centre of Sierra Leone’s Strategy
In a pre-conference meeting held a day before the official opening, Minister Sesay who also serves as Chair of ECOWAS Ministers of Trade called for stronger coordination among African members. He said Sierra Leone’s positions are grounded in the Maputo Declaration, Agenda 2063, and ECOWAS Vision 2050, which he described as frameworks for inclusive growth, structural transformation, and sustainable development.
Sesay urged ECOWAS to present a unified stance across key negotiating tracks, including WTO reform, dispute settlement, Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT), and agriculture and food security. He also emphasized continued engagement on issues such as fisheries subsidies (Phase II), concerns connected to LDC graduation, and implementation discussions related to the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF).
According to Sesay, discussions on the e-commerce moratorium and the African Union observer status must also remain clear as negotiations proceed.
His unity-focused message was repeated in engagements with LDC Trade Ministers, where developing-country representatives underscored the need for coordinated advocacy during ongoing WTO deliberations.
Participants, including ministers and delegates from Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, and The Gambia, endorsed the ECOWAS coordination effort and commended the ECOWAS Commission for its role in harmonizing regional positions ahead of MC14.
WTO’s Message: Adapt, but Stay Central
In her opening address, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala acknowledged that the global trading environment is changing rapidly, but maintained that the WTO continues to be essential to international trade governance.
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