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The new Director General (DG) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has taken office calling on members to “do things differently” to achieve the necessary reforms to maintain the relevance of the world trade body.
He vowed to start swift action to curb harmful fisheries subsidies and help increase production and distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Dr Okonjo-Iweala, in her inaugural address in Geneva, which was made available to the Ghana News Agency by the WTO, noted that the high expectations for her mandate could only be met if members were willing to commit and reach out. to agreements.
He suggested that the prospects for a successful 12th Ministerial Conference would improve if members focused on a manageable number of deliverables for this year and established longer work schedules to address issues that could not realistically be resolved within that time frame.
“I am delighted to be with you in Geneva, even if circumstances still do not allow us all to meet in the same room,” she said.
“Let me from the beginning express my gratitude to our President, Ambassador Walker, incoming President Dacio Castillo, and Ambassador Aspelund for their hard work and persistence in bringing me here.
“As I take office as CEO, I want to thank the members once again for the kind wishes and support that many of you expressed two weeks ago when you made history by electing me.”
She said: “I am honored and humbled by the trust Members have placed in me. I will bring all my knowledge, passion, experience and perseverance to the task at hand, reforming the organization and achieving results ”.
The Director-General said she was aware that expectations were high and made sure to do everything possible to move the WTO forward; stating that “however, this is a member-driven organization, so I can’t do it without you, I can’t do it without the cooperation of staff and management.”
“What we are involved in is a tripartite association. Each partner has a role to play if we want to get results.
“The high expectations of my leadership also mean that I have high expectations of you to help me deliver,” he added.
“I have said it. It cannot be the usual business. We have to shift our focus from debate and question rounds to getting results. “
Regarding Covid-19, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala said there was a demand for a trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPS) exemption for Covid-19 vaccines from a growing number of developing countries. and that the dialogue was intensifying.
“While this is happening, I propose that we ‘walk and chew gum’ also focusing on the immediate needs of dozens of poor countries that still had to vaccinate a single person,” he said.
“People are dying in poor countries. We just received our first COVAX shipment to Ghana last week and others are coming, but it won’t be enough. “
In addition, he expressed concern that the supply shortage problem was causing some countries to oversupply COVAX and divert supplies.
The Director General said that the world had a normal production capacity of 3.5 billion doses of vaccines and was now seeking to manufacture 10 billion doses.
“This is very difficult, so we need to focus on working with companies to open and license more viable manufacturing sites now in emerging markets and developing countries,” he said.
“We have to get them to work with us on knowledge and technology transfer now.”
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala said there would soon be a global manufacturing convention where they would look to build this partnership.
“I also hope that we can initiate a dialogue and exchange of information between ourselves and representatives of manufacturers’ associations from developed and developing countries. This should happen soon so that we can save lives. “
He said it would be an interim solution while they continued the dialogue on the TRIPS exemption.
