World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has called for urgent reforms to the global trade body’s 30-year-old system, particularly its consensus rule, which requires all 166 member states to agree before adopting trade decisions.
Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh on Tuesday, Okonjo-Iweala said the system’s decision-making process had become a major obstacle to progress in resolving global trade challenges.
“We need to reform the system, we cannot be complacent,” she said. “Our consensus decision-making system is practised as unanimity—everyone has to agree—so it really slows down decision-making.”
The WTO chief urged member nations to engage constructively with the United States over its criticisms of the organisation, acknowledging that some of the concerns raised by Washington were legitimate.
Okonjo-Iweala described the current state of global trade as the most significant disruption in nearly eight decades but maintained that the multilateral system remained resilient.
“The fact that almost three-quarters of world goods trade is still going on under WTO terms is amazing,” she said, praising member nations for largely avoiding retaliatory measures despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff policies toward trading partners.
She reaffirmed the WTO’s commitment to ensuring fair and rules-based trade while pushing for reforms that make the institution more effective and responsive to modern economic realities.
