The decision on the next head of the WTO must be approved by consensus.
The World Trade Organization’s candidacy for the selection of a new leader was embroiled in uncertainty on Wednesday after the United States rejected the proposed Nigerian as the next chief executive of world trade surveillance.
Just six days before the United States. Elections in which trade is a hot topic, Washington has dealt another blow to the WTO, which US President Donald Trump has called “horrific” and biased towards China.
The Trump administration has already crippled the role of the WTO as global arbiter of trade by blocking appointments to its appeal board. Now he’s threatening to make him leaderless for the weeks or months to come.
The WTO itself has called a meeting on November 9, less than a week after the elections, when it hopes to gain full support from Nigerian Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
The decision must, however, be approved by consensus, which means any of the 164 WTO members could block their appointment.
After weeks of consultations, three WTO ambassadors, the “troika” tasked with finding a successor to Brazilian Roberto Azevedo, announced at a meeting in Geneva on Wednesday that the former Nigerian finance minister should be the next chief because it had obtained interregional support. .
“All delegations that have expressed their views today have expressed very strong support for the process, the troika and the outcome. Except one,” WTO spokesperson Keith Rockwell told reporters. after the closed-door meeting, specifying that this was the United States.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative subsequently issued a statement formally supporting the only other remaining candidate, South Korea’s Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee, hailing her as a successful trade negotiator with the skills to lead the trade body at a “very difficult time”.
“It must be led by someone with real practical experience in the field,” he said during a possible search of the Nigerian candidate who critics say lacks the technical knowledge of negotiations multilateral trade.
William Reinsch, a former Commerce Department official currently at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the U.S. move was likely to worsen already high trade tensions within the WTO.
“It’s very Trumpian. They’re basically saying ‘We want to get our way and we’re ready to throw sand in the gears if we don’t get it,'” he said, adding that it could be. -be an attempt to gain. concessions in other disputes.
A spokeswoman for Okonjo-Iweala said she was “immensely humbled” by the support of the WTO selection committee and hoped for a speedy conclusion to the process.
“Frenzied activity”
Next steps are uncertain, but the WTO’s Rockwell said there would likely be “frenetic activity” ahead of the November 9 meeting to get the required consensus.
It was not immediately clear whether the outcome of the US vote would affect the US position on Okonjo-Iweala’s nomination. By then, Trump could be the head of a lame administration.
Many members, including China and the United States, had refused to publicly name their preference until Wednesday, although some African, Caribbean and other states expressed support for Okonjo-Iweala during the process. four-month selection. 26.
The leadership vacuum was created after the outgoing WTO chief Azevedo left a year in early August. The WTO is currently headed by four MPs.
Okonjo-Iweala, 66-year-old former finance minister and managing director of the World Bank, reportedly faces considerable challenges with rival economies bickering amid mounting tensions and protectionism during an induced fall in trade by the coronavirus.
Okonjo-Iweala, a development expert, called herself a “doer”, saying she had the political clout to exert influence in capitals.
Currently chair of the GAVI Vaccine Alliance Board of Directors, she also said the WTO should play a role in helping poorer countries access COVID-19 medicines and vaccines.
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
