WTO Top Job: Again, Trump Rejects Okonjo-Iweala, Demands Fresh Contest

With less than one month in office, departing Donald Trump’s presidency is still baring its rejection fangs at Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to jeopardize her chances of becoming the next Director General of World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Confirmation of United States’ hostility towards Okonjo-Iweala came from its trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, who insisted that WTO needs “someone with real experience in trade, not someone from the World Bank or a development person.”

Pointedly, Lighthizer, who spoke with BBC recently, said there is no way the Trump administration will be persuaded to back the Nigerian in its remaining weeks in office.

According to him, the WTO is “massively in need of reforms”, especially its dispute-resolving appellate body, which has evolved into a body creating a common law of trade, “taking away benefits” that members had negotiated for “and putting restraint on things that had been conceded”.

This is against the backdrop that WTO’s appellate body has been rendered quiet by Trump administration’s vetoing the appointment of new judges.

“I think there’s a consensus developing at the WTO that we need the appellate body reform. We need to start negotiating again, we need to start making headway.

“So I’m glad you brought up the WTO, it’s been clearly a focus for us and to us its an organisation that started off as a good idea and basically isn’t functioning very well, but I think that can be sorted out also”, Lighthizer said.

Meanwhile, a former chairman of the WTO appellate body and former US trade negotiator, James Bacchus said: “Effective multilateral cooperation to lower barriers to trade is urgently needed to help jumpstart the global economy and recover from the pandemic.”
Bacchus said; “That requires creative leadership from an honest broker in the role of Director General.”

However, amid assumptions that the administration of Joe Biden might have a different attitude on Iweala’s appointment, the US President-elect is yet to confirm his preference for the WTO’s top position.

“We need to be aligned with the other democracies so that we can set the rules of the road instead of having China and others dictate outcomes”, Biden recently hinted on America’s trade position.

On his part, a WTO expert at the Cato Institute in Washington, Simon Lester, said it would be a good idea if the Biden administration can trade off support for Okonjo-Iweala for political capital on other reforms in the organisation.

Lester argued that this would be the fastest way to appoint a new WTO boss, because “opening up the selection process could be messy and complicated, and would lead to delays”.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance and former Managing Director (MD) of the World Bank, received support from 110 out of 164 member countries, but the US remained adamant in opposing her candidature.

But the WTO operates based on consensus, that is, if one country opposes, a final decision cannot be made.

Both Okonjo-Iweala and South Korea’s Trade Minister, Yoo Myung Hee, had emerged the final candidates following the resignation of incumbent Roberto Azevêdo in May 2020

Following the lack of a consensus, the WTO had to postpone till further notice the general council meeting to consider the appointment of a new Director General – With agency reports