The battle to decide who heads the World Trade Organization (WTO) will come to an end early next month, with the winning candidate faced with a number of pressing problems according to a Guardian report.
Initially, it was a choice between five people including Britain’s former international trade secretary Liam Fox failed to make the final shortlist as the number of candidates was whittled down from five to two. Fox, despite support from the US, failed to muster sufficient backing, leaving the choice between a seasoned trade official in South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee and Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
The other unsuccessful candidates in the second phase of a race that began with eight hopefuls were one of the original favorites, Kenya’s Amina Mohamed, and Saudi Arabia’s Mohammad Al-Tuwaijri.
Okonjo-Iweala has served two terms as Nigeria’s finance minister and has also been her country’s foreign minister. Having also been the number two at the World Bank, she is running as an outsider and as the candidate to give the WTO fresh political momentum.
Interviewed by the Guardian last month, she said: “It’s true I am not a WTO insider but that’s a good thing. We need someone who knows trade but brings a fresh pair of eyes.
“There are a lot of people with technical skills at the WTO. There is no shortage of trade skills but the problems are there and they are getting worse. Something else is needed, strong political skills, someone able to engage leaders in a substantive way.”
Yoo, Okonjo-Iweala’s sole contender now, has a record in government stretching back 25 years and has worked on a number of bilateral trade deals, including those with the US and the UK.
