AfCFTA Forum 2025 Harmonizes African Voice in Preparation for 2026 WTO Meeting in Yaounde

From 11 to 12 December 2025, the 2nd African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Business Forum was held in Marrakech, Morocco. As part of the Forum, African Ministers of Commerce or Trade convened a coordination meeting in preparation for the 14th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which is scheduled to take place in Yaounde, Cameroon, in March 2026.

The Meeting was hosted by Morocco and moderated by Mozambique, who is the current coordinator for the African Group at the #WTO. For this Meeting, sixteen 16 ministers of trade, as well as representatives from 30 countries, were in attendance.

The African Group reiterated its commitment to a global trade system that is open, fair, inclusive, and non-discriminatory, based on a set of stable and clear rules. The Group also agreed that the Least Developed Countries (#LDC) should be considered for Special and Differential Treatment (#SDT).

The Group also pushed for reforms of the WTO to maintain its relevance in a period of trade tensions. The reforms must reinforce dispute resolution, transparency, and decisions must be arrived at via consensus in order to offer a stable and predictable trade environment.

As a priority, the Group also examined rules related to subsidies for fishing and agriculture from the points of view of #FoodSecurity and fair competition. In light of the rapid rise of #eCommerce, the Group also considered rules and regulations to manage this digital way of doing business.

At the end of the day, the African Group hopes to come up with a unified document that highlights the priorities of Africa. The Group also worked on drafting a roadmap for collective action and negotiation backed by the single market enabled by the #AfCFTA.