Global call to mobilise against the WTO and free trade agreements
From March 26-29, in your cities, towns, and national capitals!
(Bagnolet: March 4, 2026) As the World Trade Organization (WTO) prepares for its 14th Ministerial Conference in Yaoundé, Cameroon, this March, we must confront the troubling reality of its impact on global trade. Established to facilitate free trade, the WTO has only intensified poverty and inequality worldwide. Its policies have undermined sovereign autonomy, particularly in the Global South, while alienating peasant and rural communities in the Global North. The relentless promotion of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) has resulted in widespread privatization and deregulation, primarily benefiting corporations at the expense of the working class everywhere.
Currently, the WTO finds itself in a quagmire, unable to reach consensus on critical issues like public stockholding and dispute resolution—often rendered helpless as hegemonic powers weaponize trade to advance their geopolitical agendas.
La Via Campesina reiterates that any discussion about reforming the WTO is fundamentally misguided. Founded to advance the interests of a select group of wealthy nations, it maintains their power structures and functions as an inherently inequitable space, lacking a genuine commitment to collective prosperity or the defense of peasant rights.
We remain resolute in our demand to remove agriculture and food policies from WTO negotiations. Instead, these vital discussions should occur within more legitimate multilateral institutions, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), where the voices of social movements and civil society can influence decisions that impact our collective futures.
WTO MUST END. IT IS TIME FOR TO RALLY FOR A REAL ALTERNATIVE!
We need to construct a global trade framework for food and agriculture based on the principles of Food Sovereignty. In Cameroon and beyond, La Via Campesina – alongside other social movements – will continue to mobilize against the WTO and advance our concrete proposals for an alternative.
We are calling upon all our members and allies to organize mobilizations, press conferences and public meetings in your villages, towns, and national capitals—between March 26-29, 2026—to voice your opposition to free trade agreements that infringe upon our rights, and to reiterate our demand to keep agricultural trade negotiations outside the WTO.
People worldwide are invited to wear something green—be it a hat, shirt, scarf or bandana—and capture a photo holding a sign that reads #EndWTO. Posting these images on social media will amplify our message and create a visual map of solidarity that can be pinned to a central online dashboard, illustrating the growing solidarity beyond borders, as more groups join in from various locations.
#EndWTO #NewTradeFrameworkNOW
WTO KILLS PEASANTS!
FREE TRADE FUELS HUNGER, POVERTY, AND INEQUALITY!
A NEW TRADE FRAMEWORK NOW!
