On 17 February 2026, the World Trade Organization (WTO) advised that its members had agreed on a draft decision for approval at the 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) in March 2026 to improve the integration of small economies into the world trading system. Adopted at a meeting of the Committee on Trade and Development’s Dedicated Session on Small Economies, it is the first draft decision to be submitted for ministerial approval at MC14.
Submitted by the WTO’s Group of Small, Vulnerable Economies (SVEs), the draft decision calls for WTO members to address how to integrate small economies more effectively into the digital trade economy, and into the multilateral trading system more generally. It calls on the WTO Secretariat to map the challenges SVEs face in trade logistics, connectivity, and border processes, and to promote the adoption of trade facilitation and digital tools while improving transparency and traceability.
The decision also encourages the sharing of best practices in policies and regulatory frameworks, among other things, to increase the participation of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in digital trade in small economies.
MC14 will take place from 26 to 29 March 2026 in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
The draft decision calls on the Dedicated Session on Small Economies to continue monitoring progress on the small economies’ proposals in WTO bodies and negotiating groups, with the aim of framing responses to the trade-related issues identified for the fuller integration of SVEs into the multilateral trading system, as mandated by ministers in the 2001 Doha Ministerial Declaration.
The decision also requests that ministers take note of the work undertaken to date under the Work Programme on Small Economies.