WTO leader shortlist narrows to two as Liam Fox knocked out of race
The World Trade Organisation will be a led by a woman for the first time in its history after it was announced two female candidates had reached the final round of selection.
With the former international trade secretary Liam Fox now eliminated from the race, the contest is now between Yoo Myung-hee and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
Despite scoring the support of the US, Fox failed to garner sufficient backing, leaving two women in the final shortlist. The battle to decide the WTO’s next head will be decided early next month, just after the US election.
Okonjo-Iweala is an economist who has served as Nigeria’s foreign and finance minister and as a managing director of the World Bank. She has branded herself a “do-er” pointing to her work in sealing a deal to cancel billions of dollars of Nigerian debt.
Yoo, South Korea’s first female trade minister, has pitched herself as an experienced minister and has vowed to make the WTO more “relevant, resilient and responsive”.
If elected she will become the most senior South Korean on the global diplomatic stage since Ban Ki-moon, who was UN secretary general between 2007 and 2016.
Roberto Azevedo stood down in August after running the organisation since September 2013.
His successor will need to steer reforms and negotiations in the face of increasing protectionism and the recession triggered by the pandemic. They will also have to navigate the growing trade tensions, particularly between China and the US.
President Donald Trump’s “America First” policies have presented a threat to the body, which he has called “broken” and “horrible”
The WTO has in the past decided on its leaders through a consensus of its members but if this is not possible, a vote will be held.
In 1999 members were divided between former New Zealand prime minister Mike Moore and Thailand’s Supachai Panitchpakdi. They eventually compromised and gave each a term, shortened to three years from four.