Bob Edlin: McClay (a Vice Chair again) is braced for another bout of WTO talks ......

McClay (a Vice Chair again) is braced for another bout of WTO talks – but the future looks tariffying for free trade buffs

Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay is bound to have been chuffed at being appointed Vice Chair for the World Trade Organisation’s 14th Ministerial Trade Negotiation Conference, “for a second consecutive time following his role at MC13 in Abu Dhabi two years ago”.

MC13 is trade-policy jargon for “13th ministerial conference”.

Todd is one of three Vice Chairs, alongside ministers from Jamaica and the Philippines.

He released a statement today to announce the news, ahead of the 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14, of course) to be held from 26-29 March 2026 in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

And will the US be sending representatives?

We ask, because during Trump’s first presidency, his administration cut trade benefits for Cameroon.

The reason?

In a message to Congress in 2019, Trump explained that Cameroon had failed to address concerns regarding government forces’ persistent human rights violations, including

• extrajudicial killings (the American sinking of boats in the Caribbean comes into that category);
• arbitrary and unlawful detention (Trump’s ICE agents have become adept at this, and when one of them shot dead a woman recently the administration set about investigating the victim’s partner rather than the shooter’s justification); and
• torture (human rights experts and various reports contend that the Trump administration has engaged in practices and policies, particularly concerning migrants and detainees, that met the definition of torture under domestic and international law).

But let’s not dampen McClay’s enthusiasm for his WTO challenge.

In his statement today, he says Ministerial conferences are the highest decision-making body of the World Trade Organisation.

They are an important opportunity to strengthen relationships and advance initiatives that deliver real benefits for our exporters and economy, and:

“I am honoured to once again accept this nomination from WTO members, which underscores New Zealand’s enduring commitment to the multilateral trading system.”

Hmm. Our commitment may well be enduring, but how certain is the WTO’s future?

The organisation establishes and administers the rules for international commerce through agreements ratified by member parliaments.

Its rules – promoting non-discrimination, transparency, and predictability – are credited with reducing average global tariffs from over 20% in 1947 to around 3% in 2026.

Its dispute settlement mechanism provides a forum where smaller nations can hold larger economies accountable

By providing a rules-based system, the WTO has helped prevent “might-makes-right” trade wars and the kind of protectionist spirals that contributed to the Great Depression.

But that’s at odds with Trumpism and a hostility to global rule books and protocols which has resulted in the US withdrawing from 66 international organizations and entities this year following a year of disengagement that began when Trump took office less than a year ago.

His 2025 National Security Strategy labels international institutions as “transnational” entities that seek to dissolve state sovereignty

He has not formally withdrawn the US from the WTO, but his administration aims to reshape it to better serve American interests. This involves shifting from a consensus-based model to one driven by “deals” between powerful players on selected issues.

Trump rejects the WTO’s core principle of Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN) treatment, which requires members to treat all trading partners equally. His administration prefers unilateral tariffs and bilateral “reciprocal trade agreements”.

In March last year, the Trump administration suspended US financial contributions for the WTO’s 2024–2025 budgets and it is blocking all appointments to the WTO’s Appellate Body, in effect disabling the organisation’s highest appeal body.

Meanwhile, Trump has raised the average U.S. tariff rate to 17.4% (up from 2.8% when he took office) and is using tariffs as leverage to demand specific concessions and influence foreign-policy objectives.

Trump’s hostility to the WTO is driven by a belief that its focus on globalism has destroyed the American industrial base and has facilitated China’s economic dominance by failing to address issues like overcapacity and state subsidies.

McClay’s press statement – diplomatically avoiding mention of Trumpian blows to the WTO’s free-trade vision – says he will depart for Switzerland next week

… for WTO ministerial preparatory meetings, FIT Partnership discussions, and bilateral engagements with key trade partners to advance New Zealand’s priorities ahead of MC14.

“The WTO and its rules remain vital for New Zealand as a small, open economy, providing certainty for our exporters on the global stage,” Mr McClay says.

“As Vice Chair, I will work closely with the host Chair and members to help deliver a successful conference, with a strong focus on advancing better outcomes for agricultural exporters, concluding fisheries subsidies reforms, the WTO E-commerce moratorium and strengthening the WTO’s dispute settlement process.”

But large-scale trade liberalisation talks under WTO auspices, such as the Doha Development Round, have largely stagnated in recent years. Countries are turning to bilateral and regional trade agreements (RTAs), which have grown sixfold since 1995.

The “FIT Partnership” mentioned in McClay’s press statement is an example of the new arrangements which are emerging.

New Zealand is a founding member of this, the Future of Investment and Trade Partnership, a growing multi-regional group of countries “committed to a forward-looking free trade agenda”.

FIT Partnership Ministers met in person for the first time in Singapore on 18 November last year.

During that meeting, the FIT Partnership welcomed new member countries Paraguay and Malaysia, joining existing members Brunei, Chile, Costa Rica, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Rwanda, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and Uruguay.

That brought membership to 16 countries.

Something to keep the free trade ideal alive while the WTO is repurposed to meet Trumpian demands, eh?

Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE. - where this article was sourced.