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The discussions and interventions at this meeting—presided over by Morocco and moderated by Mozambique, in its capacity as coordinator of the WTO African Group, and attended by 16 African ministers and more than 30 African delegations—were based on the African Group’s consolidated document recently released at the WTO, which outlines African positions on the main thematic areas.
African trade ministers and senior government officials held a coordination meeting on Thursday in Marrakesh aimed at consolidating Africa’s position on key issues that will be on the agenda of the 14th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO), scheduled for March 2026 in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Held on the sidelines of the 2nd edition of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Business Forum, this meeting sought to strengthen coordination among African countries and establish a common roadmap to defend the continent’s priorities in the framework of multilateral trade negotiations, while anchoring collective action within the African Group.
The main objective of this meeting was to reaffirm Africa’s commitment to an open, fair, inclusive, non-discriminatory, and rules-based multilateral trading system.
All participants thus reaffirmed, on behalf of their respective countries, their commitment to ensuring the success of the Yaoundé Conference.
African ministers and representatives also highlighted several key elements, notably the importance of preserving special and differential treatment (SDT) for developing countries and least developed countries (LDCs), in order to guarantee inclusive and sustainable development, as well as the need to overcome restrictive and unilateral trade measures, which are perceived as obstacles to economic recovery and the stability of supply chains.
The position of the African Group regarding WTO reform was also addressed, emphasizing that such reform must be development-oriented, enhance transparency, preserve the dispute settlement function, and be based on consensus and the involvement of all member states.
Furthermore, the discussions revealed a real convergence on several priority issues for the African continent, notably agriculture and food security, fisheries subsidies, trade in services, and e-commerce.
In a similar statement, the Egyptian Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade, Hassan El Khatib, stressed that the role of states is to facilitate and open the way for the private sector to import, export, and invest, pointing out that this forum is witnessing strong participation from Egyptian business leaders.
“During this second edition of the AfCFTA Business Forum, we are particularly focused on strengthening exchanges between Egyptian and Moroccan entrepreneurs,” he said.
“Over the past year, significant progress has been recorded in various technical sectors, and the volume of bilateral trade has been increasing, particularly in the automotive sector,” he noted, adding that both parties also agreed to remove all obstacles hindering trade between the two countries and decided to simplify all necessary procedures to facilitate exports by Moroccan companies to Egypt.
“We have set clear objectives, and we hope that the volume of trade and commercial balance will reach a better level next year,” he continued, noting that the Egyptian government encourages investments in Morocco.
Source: map
