African trade ministers have adopted a unified continental negotiating position ahead of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) 14th Ministerial Conference, which is scheduled to take place in Yaoundé, Cameroon this month, with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretary-General framing the agreement as evidence that regional integration and multilateral engagement strengthen rather than compete with each other.
The meeting, hosted by Mozambique in Maputo in its capacity as coordinator of the African Group in Geneva, brought together African trade ministers to align continental priorities, strengthen Africa’s collective voice in global trade negotiations, and promote an inclusive trading system geared toward sustainable development and industrialisation. The meeting concluded with the adoption of the Maputo Ministerial Declaration, which provides clear political guidance to African negotiators on the key issues to be taken to MC14.
AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene, who participated in the meeting, emphasised that the continental free trade project is not a retreat from the multilateral system but a tool to strengthen Africa’s engagement within it. The position adopted in Maputo instructs African negotiators to treat the two frameworks as mutually reinforcing rather than as alternatives.
Key priorities agreed upon include WTO reform, agriculture and food security, digital trade, adoption of the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement, and securing permanent observer status for the African Union at the WTO.
The Maputo meeting also sought to safeguard Africa’s policy space for industrialisation and digital transformation, and to ensure coherence between AfCFTA implementation, national strategies, and WTO outcomes. The African Group has consistently resisted attempts by developed economies to integrate plurilateral agreements into the WTO framework without full multilateral approval, warning that such moves could constrain Africa’s development options.
MC14 marks only the second time a WTO Ministerial Conference has been held on African soil, following the landmark Nairobi session in 2015. For Ghana, which hosts the AfCFTA Secretariat in Accra and has been an active participant in guided trade initiatives, the conference represents a significant opportunity to shape global trade rules from the continent’s largest institutional platform.
