The future of multilateral trade in an era of fragmentation: Obreal convenes interregional dialogue across four continents

The conference “International Trade after the Trump 2.0 Shock”, co-organized by Obreal in Berlin on May 28–29, 2026, together with KDI School and Freie Universität Berlin, brought together leading scholars and WTO Chairholders from Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia to discuss the future of the multilateral trading system in a context of increasing geopolitical fragmentation, trade tensions, and global governance uncertainty.

Over two days of intensive work in Berlin, in hybrid format, the conference addressed issues of exceptional relevance for the current moment: WTO reform, the relationship between trade and national economic security, the rise of plurilateral agendas, and the impact of geopolitical competition on the international economic order.

Four Sessions, Four Dimensions of the Same Challenge

These four thematic sessions allowed for the articulation of complementary perspectives from different regions of the world. The first explored how to align multilateral, bilateral, and regional trade agendas within the framework of international economic law, putting on the table both the analytical and political dimensions of this challenge. The second analyzed the geopolitical context and WTO-consistent economic security policies, with contributions from Argentina (on whether the current moment represents a systemic shift or merely a stress test of the post-Trump order), Germany (on high-tech trade networks in the BRICS-G7 context), Mexico (on the role of inclusion in international security conflicts), and Brazil (on the transition from geoeconomics to economic security in the face of global crises).

The third gave voice to regional perspectives from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, with presentations on African economic integration in a shifting multilateral order, the impact of Trump tariffs on Asian value chains, the question of US-China competition as seen from Latin America, and the overlapping of bilateral, plurilateral, and multilateral trade arrangements as illustrated by the Chile-Korea case. This session will also be the scnerario in which the WTO Chairholder of CAmeroon and Coordinator of the African WTO Chairs will present the Conclusions of the “Yaoundé Academic Conference ahead of the 14th WTO Minsiterial Conference“. Finally, the fourth session focused on the possibilities and limits of WTO reform (with or without the United States), including the special and differential treatment regime for developing countries and the dispute settlement system in an era of geopolitical fragmentation.

Obreal’s Ongoing Interregional Dialogue Process on Trade and Multilateralism

Obreal co-organized the conference as part of its interregional dialogue process and, specifically, its axis dedicated to multilateralism and trade, which promotes bridge-building between regions and the generation of shared knowledge on the major challenges of global governance. The conference builds directly on the conclusions of the Yaoundé academic conference, organized ahead of the 14th WTO Ministerial Conference, which placed Africa and the different Souths at the center of discussions on the future of multilateralism.

At a time of profound international uncertainty, the conference reinforces Obreal’s role as a creator of dialogue spaces that connect academic knowledge, interregional policy dialogue, and cooperation, fostering shared responses to global challenges from a perspective that engages both the different Souths and the different Norths. Obreal’s contribution to the conference has been supported by the Government of the Generalitat of Catalonia.