Ministerial Conference

Trade is another area where the strain is showing.

The World Trade Organization held its 14th Ministerial Conference in Yaonu de Cameroon from March 26 to March 30, 2026.

Ministers left without a comprehensive deal, and a draft package of WTO reforms was sent back to Geneva for more work.

Most significantly, the moratorium on customs duties for electronic transmissions, which had been renewed at every ministerial conference since 1998, was allowed to lapse on March 30.

That might sound like a technical deal, but it could affect a lot of ordinary people.

For more than a quarter of a century, countries agreed not to change customs duties on things like software downloads, streaming, and digital services crossing borders.