• Morocco, Rwanda set to join new WTO-aligned trade group FIT-P

• Group counters U.S. protectionism, promotes rules-based free trade

• Focus includes digital trade rules, e-signatures, and e-commerce

Morocco and Rwanda are expected to join a new World Trade Organization (WTO)-aligned group of countries aiming to promote “open trade” in response to protectionist measures by the U.S. President Donald Trump, which have undermined the global consensus on trade rules. This was reported by the British newspaper The Financial Times on Friday, August 29, 2025, citing diplomatic and government sources from Asia, Latin America, and Australasia close to the matter.

The new group, to be called the Future of Investment and Trade Partnership (FIT-P), is being launched by Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and New Zealand. Diplomats say the group could include about a dozen potential members, including Morocco, Rwanda, Malaysia, Costa Rica, Panama, and Norway.

The FIT-P, which will focus on “rules-based” international trade and the defense of free trade, is expected to launch during a virtual meeting in November, followed by an in-person event in July 2026. “The idea, at the start, is to keep it as a loose coalition to bolster trade openness and international trade rules, but it may evolve into something bigger over time. It is a work in progress,” one person involved in the discussions said according to the British newspaper.

One of the group's main areas of focus is to ask member countries to guarantee equal treatment for both paper and digital trade documents, the acceptance of electronic signatures, and rules on e-commerce, which are considered essential for improving the efficiency of international trade.

The formation of this new group comes as the Trump administration has upended established international trade rules by forcing the majority of its trading partners into lopsided framework agreements, which include unilateral tariff increases on goods imported by the United States.

The U.S. president's trade offensive has prompted some experts, including former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief economist Olivier Blanchard, to recommend counter-plans to these asymmetric agreements by creating coalitions among affected states to defend the former international trade order. The European Union has announced it will strengthen its trade ties with members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a free trade agreement signed in March 2018 by eleven Asia-Pacific countries, which the United Kingdom joined in December 2024.

Walid Kéfi