WTO appoints Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as first female leader

Former Nigerian finance minister faces a tough task in reviving the influence of the organisation.

Okonjo-Iweala works on her acceptance speech at home in Potomac, Maryland, on Tuesday. Picture: AFP

The World Trade Organisation has picked its first female leader, offering a fresh start to an organisation seeking to revive its influence over global economic rules.

The WTO’s 164 members late on Monday unanimously backed former Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, an economist who also rose to the top ranks of the World Bank a decade ago, as director-general.

Ms Okonjo-Iweala emerged as the consensus pick for the job in October when the WTO was due to decide on a new leader. However, her appointment was blocked by the Trump administration, which said she lacked experience on trade issues.

Earlier this month, shortly after South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee pulled out of the race, the Biden administration backed Ms Okonjo-Iweala. She will be the WTO’s first African leader and her term, which starts March 1, will end in August 2025 unless renewed.

“The challenges facing the WTO are numerous and tricky but they are not insurmountable,” Ms Okonjo-Iweala said after being appointed. “There is light at the end of the tunnel if we work together in a transparent manner that builds trust.”

The 66-year-old faces a daunting challenge in reviving the influence of the WTO, whose previous leader, Brazil’s Roberto Azevedo, said last May he was stepping down a year early.

The organisation has been hobbled by US-China trade tensions, global tariff wars and the Trump administration’s open hostility toward the body.

Under Donald Trump, Washington blocked the appointment of judges to the WTO’s top court, called the Appellate Body. Since December 2019, the court has had too few judges to rule on big trade disputes. The organisation has failed to assuage complaints by Western countries over what they see as unfair competition from China’s market-distorting state capitalism.

Ms Okonjo-Iweala, who also has US citizenship, made her name fighting corruption as Nigeria’s finance minister in the 2000s. Long a booster for Nigeria abroad, she shopped the country to investors and wooed foreign leaders wary of its corruption challenges in the early 2000s. She returned to the job a decade later, during the government’s bitter and costly war with terrorist group Boko Haram, after leaving the No.2 position at the World Bank.

Recently she has worked as board chair of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation. During the WTO leadership campaign, she pledged to use the WTO’s trade expertise to bolster the supply of coronavirus vaccines in developing countries. Trade experts note that the director-general holds limited power in an organisation where decisions are taken by unanimity.

A group of former US trade officials had urged the Biden administration to move swiftly to support Ms Okonjo-Iweala, allowing the organisation to focus on reforms. “We need to equip the institution to address pressing challenges confronting all of us — challenges such as global overcapacity in multiple industries that unfairly cost workers their jobs and the need to protect and preserve the environment,” David Bisbee, Washington’s WTO representative in Geneva, said last month.

Ms Okonjo-Iweala’s selection was quickly welcomed by global trade officials. “We look forward to working closely with you to reform the WTO, making it fit for purpose for today’s world,” said EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis.

In a statement, China’s Ministry of Commerce said it was “full of confidence” in her appointment. “China hopes that after she takes office, she will … promote the necessary reforms of the WTO and safeguard and enhance the authority and effectiveness of the multilateral trade system.”

The Wall Street Journal