Gets EU  Endorsement As Selection Process Enters Final Stage.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

The final two – from an initial list of eight candidates – are Nigeria’s former finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and South Korean trade minister Yoo Myung-hee.

Both are female which means that if members of the WTO can coalesce around one them in the final stages of selection, it will be the first time the job has been taken by a woman.

Ms Okonjo-Iweala and Ms Yoo both have political and international experience and both were students at American universities.

Ms Okonjo-Iweala, who also has US nationality, has had two spells as finance minister and a short stint as foreign minister in Nigeria.

Much of her career was spent as an economist at the World Bank. She eventually rose to the position of managing director, essentially second in command at the institution. She has been an unsuccessful candidate for the top job at the bank.

She is currently chair of the board of the international vaccines alliance, Gavi.

She has not spent her career immersed in the details of trade policy as some other candidates did. But her work as a development economist and finance minister means she has often had to deal with international trade.

She describes trade as “a mission and a passion”.

Her statement to the WTO’s general council hinted at a literal lifetime in the area – she said she was born the same year that South Korea acceded to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which became one of the key elements of the WTO’s rule book.

She started her career in trade, she said, in the year the WTO was born, 1995.

She has been involved in some of South Korea’s key trade negotiations in that period, including with China and the US. She makes a point of her “deep knowledge and insight into the details of various areas of trade agreements”.

It is important to remember that a WTO director general can only make progress if they can get the member countries on board.

It has s been said that the DG has no executive power; that they are more like a butler announcing to the member countries) that dinner is served.

But the WTO is an organization under stress. Two of the biggest commercial powers on the planet – China and the US – are embroiled in bitter trade conflict.

The US has some substantial concerns about the WTO. Many of them pre-date President Trump, but his administration has taken a less collaborative approach to pursuing them.

The US has undermined the WTO’s ability to carry out one of its main functions – settling trade disputes between member countries.

It has refused to allow the body which hears appeals to appoint new members, effectively judges. That reflects US concerns that the body’s judgments were going beyond the WTO rulebook. The US block has left it unable to take new appeal cases.

It doesn’t mean the dispute settlement system doesn’t work at all, but it is seriously impaired.

In terms of diversity, the WTO seems to be heading into new territory. It will, almost certainly, have a woman as Director General for the first time a woman.

The regional representation might also break new ground, if the African candidate gets the job – there has been an Asian director general before, from Thailand.

EU Backing

The EU has siad it will back Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the next director-general of the World Trade Organization, boosting the Nigerian’s frontrunner status.

Ambassadors from the EU’s 27 member states confirmed on Monday that the bloc would throw its weight behind Ms Okonjo-Iweala, following discussions among EU leaders during their summit in Brussels last week.

Ms Okonjo-Iweala, a former finance minister, is facing off against South Korea’s trade minister, Yoo Myung-hee, in the final round of voting at the WTO. The winner is expected to be declared early next month.

An EU official said the decision to back Ms. Okonjo-Iweala, who would be the first WTO chief from Africa, was “a strong signal to reinforce the multilateral order”, as well as “a clear signal towards Africa and a sign of mutual trust”.

Policymakers, including Valdis Dombrovskis, EU trade commissioner, Peter Altmaier, German economy minister, and Charles Michel, EU Council president, have sought to forge a common EU stance for the final voting round. The EU itself had decided not to field a candidate of its own.

An EU diplomat said that, during the internal deliberations, Ms Okonjo-Iweala had been backed by France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, among others. Ms Yoo found considerable support among EU governments in central and eastern Europe, including the Baltic states.

A person briefed on the discussions among ambassadors on Monday said Latvia and Hungary — the last two holdout countries favouring Ms Yoo — agreed to switch and join the majority position at a special meeting convened.

Trade diplomats from the EU27 held hearings with both candidates on October 14.

The EU decision leaves Ms Yoo facing an uphill struggle. Japan and China are expected to exercise a de facto veto against her because of political tensions with Seoul.

Challenges

The new director-general needs to be chosen by consensus among the WTO’s 160-plus member governments. The role became available because of the unexpected early resignation of Roberto Azevêdo, a Brazilian who had held the job since 2013. He stepped down in September.

The new chief will take over at a time when the WTO’s capacity to promote rules-based trade has been undermined by gaps in its rule book. These have been exposed by China’s model of capitalism, and by President Donald Trump’s propensity for taking unilateral action to hit back against perceived ill-treatment of US companies.

But the new director-general will also assume office at a pivotal moment, when the international community will either be adjusting to a new US administration or preparing for another four years of Donald Trump as US President.