Okonjo-Iweala selected as WTO Director-General by screening panel

According to sources, a formal announcement of her appointment will be done “anytime soon.” The source said the final vote was not close she beat her only challenger by a wide margin. Her challenger is South Korea’s Finance Minister, Yoo Myung Hee.

The World Trade Organization’s selection panel made up of three senior WTO Ambassadors, which backed the Nigerian-born international economist, who holds both Nigerian and American citizenships, have set her up for ratification by the General Council of the organisation’s 164 members.

Okonjo-Iweala, 66, twice served as Nigeria’s finance minister and has experience working at international governance bodies as a former managing director of the World Bank and as a chair at the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization.

According to a Bloomberg report, Okonjo-Iweala campaigned as a WTO outsider and a reformer who told Bloomberg she plans to bring a “fresh set of eyes” to a deeply dysfunctional organization.

“I’m known as a strong reformer,“ she told Bloomberg in an interview. “My whole career at the World Bank has been involved with reforms in countries that have been beneficial.”

Bloomberg reports that the WTO’s leadership selection process is either nearing an end or it’s about to get messy.

Delegates for the members are expected to hold a general council meeting in the coming days to make a formal decision to determine if there is indeed consensus support for Okonjo-Iweala.

It is possible that the process may drag out if nations like the U.S. decides to oppose a decision to appoint Okonjo-Iweala.

It was gathered that the United States is not disposed to Okonjo-Iweala’s emergence as leader of the WTO despite her American citizenship, over 3 decades residency in that country as a student at Harvard University and MIT in Cambridge Massachusetts as well as her long service at the World Bank in Washington DC.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, according to Bloomberg, has pushed for South Korea’s candidate, Yoo Myung-hee, even though Okonjo-Iweala gained U.S. citizenship in 2019.

Sources close to Lighthizer say he views Okonjo-Iweala as being too close to pro-trade internationalists in Washington like Robert Zoellick, a former USTR who worked with Okonjo-Iweala when he was president of the World Bank.

If it’s not possible for the general council to agree on a consensus candidate, WTO members can consider the possibility of recourse to a vote as a last resort by a procedure to be determined at that time. Such a development would be unprecedented for the WTO.