CARICOM Ministers of Trade finalised regional preparations for the Fourteenth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Yaoundé, Cameroon, when they met on Wednesday, 25 March, for the 125th Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED-Trade).
The meeting, chaired by Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Jamaica, consolidated CARICOM approaches on issues before the Ministerial Conference.
These included the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce, Moratorium on Customs Duties on Electronic Transmissions, a proposal for a Committee on Digital Trade, incorporation of the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement (IFDA) into the WTO’s legal architecture, agriculture and fisheries subsidies, and WTO reform.
In her opening remarks, Minister Johnson Smith noted that the meeting was convened in keeping with the guidance of Ministers at the Sixty-First Regular Meeting of the COTED in November 2025, which mandated preparatory engagement ahead of the WTO Ministerial meeting.
She emphasised the importance of CARICOM’s constructive engagement, given shifts in the global trading environment, pressures facing multilateralism, and the need to reinforce the rules-based trading system while protecting the rights and interests of small developing economies.
The CARICOM Secretariat’s Assistant Secretary-General for CARICOM Single Market and Trade, Ambassador Wayne McCook and Director of External Trade, Joel Richards are supporting the Member States’ participation in the WTO Ministerial Conference.