WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala will seek another four-year term as head of the World Trade Organization following a broad Africa-led push to start the process early, aiming to complete “unfinished business” from her first mandate.
Okonjo-Iweala, 70, a former Nigerian finance minister, made history by becoming the first female and African chief of the 30-year-old trade body in 2021.
“I would like to be part of this chapter of the WTO story and I stand ready to compete for the position,” Okonjo-Iweala told Reuters on Monday in comments later confirmed by a WTO statement.
“For my second term, I intend to focus on delivering,” she added, saying among the priorities were addressing “unfinished business”.
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These include a deal on ending fisheries subsidies and reaching a breakthrough in global agriculture negotiations, as well as reforming the WTO’s hobbled disputes system and decarbonising trade.
Officially, she has until the end of November to decide whether to apply again. But the African-led move to start early, initiated in July before U.S. President Joe Biden withdrew from the election campaign and supported by dozens of countries, was seen as motivated partly by a bid to secure her second term ahead of the U.S. vote in November.
Under WTO consensus rules, that would be possible if nobody else applies and all states accept her.
In 2020, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration blocked her appointment in a step seen by some as an attack on an organisation he once described as “horrible”. She secured U.S. backing when Biden succeeded Trump in 2021.
Asked whether both she and the WTO could be successful if Trump is elected, she said: “I don’t focus on that because I have no control.” (Reuters)
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