What changed

B100155/2026

P10_TA(2026)0086

European Parliament resolution on multilateralMultilateral negotiations in view of the WTO’s 14th Ministerial Conference in Yaoundé, 26 to 29 March 2026

(2025/2875(RSP))

PE781.228

European Parliament resolution of 12 March 2026 on multilateral negotiations in view of the WTO’s 14th Ministerial Conference in Yaoundé, 26 to 29 March 2026 (2025/2875(RSP))

The European Parliament,

I. whereas a 2025 UN Trade and Development report demonstrated that, contrary to the arguments of opponents of the e-commerce moratorium, revenue from digital taxation would be limited and risk undermining competitiveness and trade;

J. whereas the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, which was agreed at the 12th Ministerial Conference and entered into force in September 2025, is the first ever multilateral trade agreement with environmental sustainability at its core and establishes a binding set of global rules to help curb an estimated USD 22 billion per year in harmful subsidies provided by governments to the fishing sector, as mandated under SDG target 14.6;14,6;

K. whereas food security remains a challenge, as 258 million people were classified as being in crisis or in more severe phases of acute food insecurity in 2022, up from 193 million in 2021; whereas the WTO Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture explicitly acknowledges the importance of considering food security in ongoing negotiations; whereas trade has the potential to enhance the availability of food in regions where it is limited, and trade can also contribute to improved economic access to food by generating employment opportunities and boosting incomes;

Development dimension

17. Welcomes the entry into force in September 2025 of the first Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies; stresses the crucial importance of also reaching agreement swiftly on disciplines on fisheries subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, which represent more than half of all fisheries subsidies, in order to avoid depleting marine biological resources and allow for their sustainable management, while respecting the need for special and differential treatment in line with SDG target 14.6;14,6;

18. Stresses the need to strengthen and mainstream the development dimension of the WTO, including through the WTO modernisation process, by recognising the diversity of developing countries’ economic situations and avoiding a one-size-fits-all application of special and differential treatment and making the special and differential treatment provisions more granular and more evidence- and needs-based, subject to regular review, including clear graduation mechanisms, so that they can better meet the needs of developing countries, including least-developed countries; underlines, moreover, that members’ self-designation of their development status cannot remain the sole criterion for special and differential treatment and calls for objective, transparent and regularly reviewed criteria, while ensuring adequate flexibility for the poorest and most vulnerable countries;