Equatorial Guinea prepares for first WTO accession Working Party meeting

The visit to Equatorial Guinea by the Working Party Chair is the first to take place  since the Working Party was established in 2008. 

In high-level meetings with the government, Ambassador Sánchez-Fung emphasized the importance of WTO membership to advance Equatorial Guinea's economic reforms, regional integration and diversification efforts. He first met with Prime Minister Manuel Osa Nsue Nsua, who said: "Equatorial Guinea is determined to join the WTO and leverage the multilateral trading system to modernize its economy."

The Chair also met with the Vice Prime Minister and WTO Accession Chief Negotiator Gaudencio Mohaba Messu, with the Deputy Minister of Trade Jeronimo Carlos Osa Osa, and with senior officials from trade-related ministries. The Chair's visit also included meetings with private sector representatives, including the National Economic Council and the Chamber of Commerce.

Ambassador Sánchez-Fung stressed the strategic importance of Equatorial Guinea's accession to WTO members and to the Central African region, noting that "as the only Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) member outside the WTO, the accession of Equatorial Guinea would not only strengthen CEMAC's regional economic integration but also reinforce broader integration efforts taking place within the African Continental Free Trade Area."

He highlighted the benefits of WTO membership for small economies, drawing on the experience of the Dominican Republic, and emphasized that accession would help attract foreign investment, diversify the economy beyond hydrocarbons and strengthen legal and structural reforms.

Despite domestic economic challenges, Equatorial Guinea has made technical progress since submitting its Memorandum on the Foreign Trade Regime in December 2022, with the circulation of a revised memorandum and three new accession-related documents in March 2025.

During the visit to Malabo, the WTO Secretariat conducted a national workshop to assist the inter-ministerial technical team from Equatorial Guinea in preparing for the first Working Party meeting. The government started discussing internally the preparations of initial offers on market access for goods and services. At the workshop, the Chair encouraged members to use the WTO's 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) scheduled for March 2026 in Yaoundé, Cameroon, to engage with Equatorial Guinea on resuming the Working Party's work.

The government also plans to participate in the 14^th China Round Table planned on the margins of MC14. The tentative 2026 timeline for the first Working Party meeting emerged from the discussions in Malabo.

Praising the strong political will demonstrated at all levels of government, Ambassador Sánchez-Fung noted: "The outcomes of this visit exceeded expectations."  He called on WTO members and the WTO Secretariat to provide targeted technical assistance to facilitate Equatorial Guinea's accession process.

More information about WTO accessions is available here.