US President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday offered its “strong support” to Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to lead the WTO, clearing a path for her to become the body’s first female and first African leader.
The move marks another sharp split with former US president Donald Trump, who paralyzed the organization and opposed the candidacy of the former Nigerian finance minister who was backed by many other countries.
The Office of the US Trade Representative in a statement cited her “wealth of knowledge in economics and international diplomacy,” and said she had “proven experience managing a large international organization.”
Photo: Reuters
The office also said that South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy Yoo Myung-hee — whom the Trump administration supported — had abandoned her bid to head the WTO earlier on Friday.
Yoo consulted with the US — her primary backer — and other major countries and “decided to renounce her candidacy,” the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said in a statement.
The process to name a successor for Roberto Azevedo, who stepped down in August last year, had been deadlocked for months.
Key WTO ambassadors tapped Okonjo-Iweala in October last year as the best pick to lead the organization, but without US support the process was left at a standstill since the director general is normally chosen by consensus among all 164 member states.
“The United States stands ready to engage in the next phase of the WTO process for reaching a consensus decision on the WTO director general,” the Office of the US Trade Representative said.
“The Biden administration looks forward to working with a new WTO director general to find paths forward to achieve necessary substantive and procedural reform of the WTO,” it said.
Okonjo-Iweala later wrote on Twitter: “Grateful for the expression of support from the US today.”
The next regular meeting of the Geneva-based organization’s General Council, where the leadership issue could be discussed, is not until March 1, but “another could be called on short notice,” as the last meeting in October had been suspended amid the deadlock, WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell said.
A European diplomat hailed Yoo’s decision to drop out of the race.
“We salute the spirit of responsibility in this decision. This is good news for multilateralism,” he said.
“Now nothing stands in the way of members rapidly approving the Nigerian candidate, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who won the selection process,” he added.
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