WTO chief cuts his second term short by one year, to step down on Aug 31

New Delhi: The World Trade Organization (WTO) on Thursday announced that its CEO Roberto Azevêdo has decided to step down effective August 31, a year earlier than planned.

Azevedo’s exit, whose second four-year term was scheduled to end in September 2021, comes at a time when the world is grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic and global trade is forecast to plummet to historic lows. WTO has projected the decline in world trade to exceed the trade slump brought by the global financial crisis of 2008-09 with merchandise trade expected to decline 13-32% in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Besides, the multilateral trade watchdog’s key function of dispute settlement has been crippled with the US having blocked the appointment of judges.

“It is a personal decision – a family decision – and I am convinced that this decision serves the best interests of this Organization,” he said in a statement at the Heads of Delegation meeting on Thursday, adding that it would be better to step down early to avoid a situation where the selection process for his successor clashes with the WTO’s next ministerial conference which is likely next year.

Azevêdo, 62, is the sixth Director-General of the WTO and first took charge on September 1, 2013 for a four-year term. His second four-year term began on September 1, 2017.

Selection process vs Ministerial Conference
The previous ministerial conference in Buenos Aires in 2017 collapsed as the US backtracked on its commitment to discuss agricultural issues, and refused to reaffirm multilateralism and the Doha development mandate.

Azevedo said the pandemic has “significantly slowed down many of our activities. Physical meetings remain suspended ”and even if conditions in Geneva improve, many capitals and governments would be under duress in the months to come.

“This offers us a window to launch the selection process with less impact than usual on our work,” he said, adding that the selection process would be a “distraction from – or worse, a disruption to – our desired outcomes”.

Instead of focusing all efforts on the search for compromise-on finding flexibility and making concessions- we would be spending valuable time on a politically charged process that has proved divisive in the past, he said.