(Phnom Penh): On 24-28 March 2026, Sok Siphana, Senior Minister in charge of Special Missions and Chairman of the Trade Policy Advisory Board (TPAB), led a Cambodian delegation to the 14th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference (MC14) in Yaoundé, according to the outcomes seen by Fresh News on Wednesday (Apr. 1).
As the WTO’s highest decision-making body, which is convened biennially, MC14 brought together ministers, ambassadors, and representatives from governments, international organizations, and the private sector to tackle with great urgency the WTO reforms. Ministers were called upon to provide clear political direction and to agree on a credible post-MC14 reform roadmap.
Key discussions addressed the future of the multilateral trading system, priority negotiating areas, including agriculture, trade and development, e-commerce, fisheries subsidies, investment facilitation for development, and intellectual property.
On 25 March, Sok Siphana attended a WTO and World Bank Group’s side event on “Trade in Services for Development (TS4D),” which focused on enhancing on the competitiveness of the services sector in developing economies. He attended the MC14 Business Forum, co-organized by WTO and the International Chamber of Commerce, where public and private sector leaders discussed on the challenges of global trade amidst the current crisis in the Middle East.
On 26 March, Sok Siphana attended the Opening Ceremony of the MC14, featuring many distinguished personalities including Joseph Dion Ngute, Prime Minister of Cameroon; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General of the WTO; Muhammed B.S. Jallow, Vice President of Gambia; Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, Vice President of Equatorial Guinea; WTO Trade Ministers and ambassadors.
On 27 March, he attended a WTO Reform Session, which was structured around a ministerial-level exchange on foundational issues of the WTO, including its core principles, followed by focused breakout sessions. These sessions addressed the WTO decision-making processes, the status of past mandates, the development dimension, the issues of level playing field, and other substantive discussions on the future direction of WTO reforms and the strengthening of the multilateral trading system.
On the margin of the Conference, Sok Siphana held bilateral meetings with Manuel Tovar Rivera, Minister of Foreign Trade of Costa Rica; César Llona, Vice Minister of Foreign Trade of Peru; Sir Chris Bryant, Minister of State for Trade Policy of UK; and Amb. Victor Manuel Aguilar Pérez, Permanent Representative of Mexico to the WTO, to solicit their support for Cambodia’s process of accession to the high-standard CP-TPP free trade agreement.
He had a brief courtesy call on the WTO DG, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. He had a meeting with Aïssatou Diallo, Executive Director of the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) Executive Secretariat, where both sides agreed to further explore cooperation between the TPAB and the EIF, as well as with Escipion J. Oliverira-Gomez, Director of the Division of the Country Programmes of the International Trade Centre (ITC); and Quan Zhoa, Senior Programme Officer at the Trade Policy Division for Market Development of ITC, to exchange views on trade cooperation with Cambodia.
=FRESH NEWS
