First Independent Mena Newspaper
The European Union’s decision to impose 50% tariffs on steel imports beyond a reduced quota has sent ripples through global markets — and Africa is bracing for the fallout. While most African countries are technically exempt from the EU’s new tariff regime under WTO rules, the continent may still face serious indirect consequences. With major […]
The World Trade Organization (WTO) has warned that Nigeria and other African economies risk being excluded from the next wave of global trade unless they urgently invest in digital infrastructure, skills, and AI governance. According to the WTO’s 2025 World Trade Report, artificial intelligence (AI) could boost global trade by up to 37% by 2040, […]
In a bold step to safeguard global trade from rising protectionism, fourteen small and medium-sized countries, including Morocco and Rwanda, have officially launched the Future of Investment and Trade (FIT) Partnership, a new international alliance aimed at promoting open markets, attracting investment, and addressing modern trade challenges. Announced during a virtual ministerial meeting attended by […]
Morocco and the UN World Tourism Organization have signed a financial agreement related to the establishment of the organization’s first African innovation Office in Rabat, Morocco. The financial agreement was signed Thursday in Madrid by Morocco’s Minister of Tourism, Fatim-Zahra Ammor, and UN Tourism Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili. This agreement follows host country agreement signed between […]
As tensions surge between the world’s two largest economies, China is ramping up its global diplomacy, holding strategic talks with Saudi Arabia and South Africa to counterbalance the United States’ sweeping new tariffs. China’s commerce minister Wang Wentao recently held virtual meetings with his counterparts in Saudi Arabia and South Africa, focusing on responses to […]
Morocco is building a new multidimensional development model, based on democracy, economic growth and human development, says World Trade Organization in its review report of the country’s trade policy. Since 2016, Morocco’s economy has experienced steady growth, notwithstanding cyclical fluctuations. Its average growth rate stands at 2.1%, thereby consolidating its position as an emerging economy […]
The European Union should work together with African countries to reform the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) subsidy rules as a way to tackle the global distortions of China’s state capitalism, the German Economic Institute (IW) argues in a new report. The research report entitled ‘Reforming WTO’s Subsidy Rules: a New Opportunity to Tackle the Global […]
The World Trade Organization chief has urged Nigeria to see alternative revenue sources as the oil and gas industry becomes less lucrative. Speaking during a recent function in Abuja, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Director-General of the WTO, has advised incoming governors to stop depending on crude oil and diversify the sources of revenue in their domains. […]
Equatorial Guinea has announced its first outbreak of the Marburg virus, a hemorrhagic fever nearly as deadly as Ebola, the World Health Organization (WTO) confirmed 13 February. Nine people have died of Marburg virus disease in Equatorial Guinea, a small central African country of about 1.6 million. A health alert had been declared in Kie-Ntem […]
The Moroccan Ministry of Tourism & Handicraft, the Moroccan Society of Tourism Engineering (SMIT) and the World Tourism Organization (WTO) signed, on Friday in Marrakech, a partnership agreement for the promotion of investment and digitalization in the tourism sector in Morocco. The agreement, signed on the sidelines of the thematic session of the 117th Executive […]