72% of world trade still operates under WTO— Okonjo-Iweala

Director-general of the World Trade Organisation Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,has said that despite certain policy uncertainties, 72 per cent of global trade still operates under the organisation.

Okonjo-Iweala said this in Abuja at the seventh Africa Emerging Markets Forum. The forum was jointly organised by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Emerging Markets Forum (EMF) and the Centre for the Study of Economies of Africa (CSEA).

According to Ms Okonjo-Iweala, in modern terms, world merchandise trade grew by 4.6 per cent as surging demand for AI-related goods offset weaknesses linked to tariff increases and trade policy uncertainty.

“Services trade grew by 5.3 per cent again in modern terms, and within that, trading digitally delivered services grew even faster, at almost six per cent. Most countries continue to trade on rules-based WTO terms. Around 72 per cent of global goods trade continues to flow on core WTO-most-favoured-nation tariffs.

“An additional 16 per cent goes on terms within the wider WTO framework, mostly tariff preferences arising from bilateral and regional trade agreements that are built on WTO foundations,” she said.

She said that global goods trade volumes in 2025 were over 12 per cent higher than in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, while services trade volumes were 31 per cent higher.

According to her, countries are responding to the Strait of Hormuz crisis with more trade-facilitating than trade-restrictive measures.

“They are lifting trade restrictions, facilitating trade in oil and gas products, finding alternative routes to get oil and fertiliser out of the region.

These measures have not been enough to compensate for the closure of the strait, which has hit the world, and especially vulnerable African countries with higher energy, fertiliser and food prices.

They have not built resilience and prevented a situation that could have been considerably worse for the global economy,” she said.

She said that the Global South offered a case in point, adding that the share of South-South trade in the global total had increased from under one-tenth in 1995 to about a quarter today.

“They are keeping their trade diplomats busy. Of the 384 existing regional trade agreements that have been formally notified to the WTO, 49 per cent are among developing countries.

“Among the eight additional agreements that have not been notified, the South-South share appears to be even higher, and 22 economies still outside the 166 from the WTO are working hard to accede to it,” she stated.