As the World Trade Organisation begins its 2026 Public Forum, the global trade body is grappling with a stalled dispute-resolution system, disagreements over tariffs on digital trade and growing calls for small businesses to play a greater role in global trade agreements.
Jorge Casto, the director of the WTO’s legal affairs division, said dispute resolution remained one of the organisation’s central functions.
This comes after the global e-commerce moratorium lapsed on 30 March 2026, after WTO members failed to reach consensus at the 14th Ministerial Conference in Yaoundé, Cameroon. WTO member countries disagree on whether to impose custom duty tariffs on digital trade.
Since 1998, they have agreed not to impose customs duties on electronic transmissions such as software downloads, e-books and streaming services.
Developed economies, including the US and European Union, have pushed for the duty-free arrangement to become permanent, arguing that it provides greater predictability for digital trade. Developing economies, however, have raised concerns about lost customs revenue and the implications for their economies.
Castro said the WTO remained the preferred platform to resolve disputes in international trade.
“Members continue to use the system and the WTO is still the primary forum for international trade disputes,” Casto said.
However, the WTO’s dispute-settlement system had been weakened since 2019, when the appellate body became unable to function because members failed to agree on new appointments.
That has created what is known as an “appeal into the void”, where a country could appeal a dispute ruling without there being a functioning appellate body to hear the appeal, effectively preventing the ruling from moving to implementation.
Casto said 2019 marked a peak in WTO disputes, with major economies among the most frequent complainants. The United States filed 124 complaints and the European Union 114, followed by Brazil, India and Mexico. There were also 25 appeals into the void, he said.
Many countries have chosen not to appeal rulings in order to allow disputes to proceed to implementation.
Over the past year, the WTO recorded four appeals into the void, three resolutions and three settlement agreements.
Digital trade and the end of the e-commerce moratorium
Digital trade is another major issue confronting WTO members.
Discussions on electronic commerce from 1998, when members agreed to a moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions, including products such as software, films and books.
“The idea was not to impose tariffs on these digital products,” a Geneva-based trade official said.
The debate now centres on whether WTO rules covering goods, services and intellectual property should apply to digital trade. The prevailing view among some members is that the rules should remain applicable, regardless of the technological means through which trade takes place.
WTO requires consensus among members. The failure to reach an agreement in Cameroon resulted in the moratorium expiring.
Developing countries are concerned about the potential loss of customs revenue, while advanced economies are more focused on the increased costs and uncertainty that tariffs could create for digital trade.
In response, a smaller group of WTO members has pursued an alternative arrangement whereby customs duties are permanently banned under the Agreement on Electronic Commerce. By May 2026, 60 of the WTO’s 166 members had agreed to a plurilateral arrangement instead of seeking a multilateral consensus.
The official also said a US-based work programme had issued a statement committing to maintaining the moratorium.
The official added that the African Continental Free Trade Area had also made progress on e-commerce, demonstrating the willingness of African countries to participate in discussions on the future of digital trade.
Small businesses seek a greater voice
The role of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in global trade was another focus of discussions at the forum.
Ambassador Matthew Wilson, of Barbados’s mission to the WTO and who also directs the MSMEs Informal Working Group, said there was a misconception that the WTO primarily served large businesses.
Large companies often had greater influence over government policy through lobbying, despite small businesses accounting for about 65% of global employment, he said.
MSMEs remained underrepresented in trade agreements, creating what Wilson described as an export gap. The informal working group was seeking to address some of the barriers facing small businesses, including access to finance, digitisation, informality, artificial intelligence and intellectual property.
“You cannot wait for the market to deliver MSME competitiveness,” he said.
Wilson said banks were often reluctant to finance MSMEs despite evidence that small businesses repay their loans. He also highlighted the economic and social contribution of women entrepreneurs, saying women who ran small businesses could channel more than 60% of their income back into their communities, compared with about 30% for men.
The WTO informal working group on small businesses was seeking to address cumbersome border regulations, limited access to finance and inadequate representation, all of which could prevent MSMEs from participating fully in international trade.
“Building competitive, market-ready and investment-ready MSMEs is not just an economic objective; it is not just a trade objective, it is a development imperative,” Wilson said.
“And if trade and the WTO is to deliver on the WTO’s broader purpose of supporting development, poverty reduction and sustainability, small businesses must be given greater consideration.”
The informal working group is advocating for a dedicated chapter on small businesses in WTO agreements, giving diplomats and trade negotiators a specific framework for considering the interests of MSMEs in global trade policy.