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The South Korean trade minister and a Harvard-trained former Nigerian finance minister are finalists for CEO.
The World Trade Organization announced Thursday that South Korea’s trade minister and a Harvard-trained Nigerian former finance minister qualified as the two finalists to become the next CEO, securing a woman at the top for the first time. .
A selection committee said Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee qualified for the final round in a race expected to end in the next few weeks. They were selected from a group of five candidates.
“The two women who are in the final round are very well qualified. This is something that everyone has agreed on, ”WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell told reporters. “They have impressed us from the beginning.”
The Geneva-based General Council of the WTO, made up of envoys from the 164-member body, removed Amina Mohamed, Kenya’s former trade minister; Mohammad Maziad Al-Tuwaijri, former Saudi economy minister, and former UK Secretary for International Trade and Brexit advocate Liam Fox.
“Deeply grateful and honored to have been selected for the final round in the selection process for the next Director General of @WTO!” tweeted Yoo, who has a law degree from Vanderbilt University. “We need a capable and experienced new leader who can rebuild trust and restore the relevance of @WTO. I look forward to your continued support. Thank you!!!”
Okonjo-Iweala on Twitter thanked WTO members for their support and wrote that he was “happy to be in the final round”.
Former Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala attends the World Economic Forum on Africa in Abuja, Nigeria. [File: Sunday Alamba/AP Photo]
A previous round had reduced the list of candidates from eight to five. The winner is expected to be announced no later than early November.
Former WTO director general Roberto Azevedo of Brazil made a surprise announcement in May that he would be leaving work a year earlier, citing a “personal decision.” He left without a successor on August 31.
Azevedo’s seven-year term was marked by intense pressure from US President Donald Trump, who repeatedly accused the WTO of “unfair” treatment of the United States and started a trade war with China in defiance of the WTO system. . In the past, Trump has threatened to remove the United States from the trade body entirely.
The WTO dispute resolution system is perhaps the world’s best-known venue for resolving international trade disputes, such as those involving aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus in recent decades. But the United States has clogged the dispute resolution machinery by blocking new members from the WTO’s highest court, the Appellate Body, which has been unable to address new disputes since last year.
The next CEO will face the daunting task of keeping the United States on board if Trump wins a second term, amid accusations from Washington that China is engaging in unfair practices such as over-subsidizing industries and stealing intellectual property, especially from expense of western companies. hoping to tap into the expanding Chinese market. China rejects the accusations.
The WTO, which was created in 1995 out of the previous General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, has never had a director general or African citizen as its leader. It operates by consensus, which means that any member country can block decisions.
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