In wishing the World Trade Organisation (WTO) well on its thirtieth anniversary, President Cyril Ramaphosa urged the body to uphold its aims to ensure smooth, predictable and free trade, amid what he described as "challenging and uncertain times".

As the world grappled with flip-flop tariffs, imposed and suspended, by US President Donald Trump, Ramaphosa called for a recalibration of trade rules that ensured policy space for the industrialisation of developing countries.

He described constraints and potential over-reach of trade rules, globally, which he said limited access to key policy tools.

He called on the WTO to provide reform and to be assertive in its mission, as more than 80% of world trade takes place under WTO rules.

“We are seeing unilateral and protectionist measures being implemented by some advanced economies that are outside the agreed-upon multilateral framework. It is incumbent on us all to ensure that the multilateral trading system is strengthened, or we risk the encroachment of a global trade regime based on power dynamics. The WTO is called upon to assert its role in ensuring that global trade works for all. WTO reform must be development centric. Consensus-based decision-making in the WTO must remain paramount,” Ramaphosa said.

He noted that the fourteenth Ministerial Conference of the WTO, in Cameroon in 2026, provided an opportunity to outline a road to reform.

Ramaphosa gave South Africa’s support for WTO director-general Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s reform initiative and said efforts must be redoubled and that structural transformation must ensure that developing countries were included in global trade, as imbalances persist.

“Developing countries that account for most of the WTO’s membership remain locked into the lower end of global value chains. Commodity dependence further exposes these economies to price volatility and macro-economic disruption,” he said.