San Francisco Frontiers - WTO must reform, 'status quo is not an option': chief

"We are meeting today at an inflection point, not just for the WTO, but... for the multilateral system," Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told reporters, saying that if the global trading system were allowed to lapse, it would be "chaos".

"We need to change to fit with the times," she said.

Reform will be at the heart of the WTO's ministerial meeting in Cameroon next month.

The World Trade Organization regulates large swathes of global trade but is handicapped by a rule requiring full consensus among members, and a dispute settlement system crippled by the United States.

The Geneva-based organisation faced structural and geopolitical obstacles long before US President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year and dramatically ratcheted up global trade tensions.

Speaking at the WTO's headquarters, Okonjo-Iweala said that "the world is moving so fast... If you look at the speed at which technology is moving, and AI is moving and quantum technologies are moving".

"If your organisation doesn't adapt, then you'll be left behind," she said.

"This organisation provides stability and predictability," she added, hailing that "in spite of all the knocks, it is still the bedrock for so much of world trade".

"If we don't have this system, what does it mean? I'll be very honest with you: there'll be chaos," she said.

"It means a business will send goods somewhere without the knowledge of how those goods will be valued when it arrives at customs... you wouldn't know how your goods will be valued before you're tariffed. You wouldn't know whether you're going to make money or not.

"You'll be confronted when your goods arrive with rules that you were never aware of," she said.

J.Martinez--SFF