Contrary to reports that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been elected WTO DG, the fact is she has not clinched the job yet. She only just sailed through the committee according to reports from BloomBerg.





Nigeria’s former finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala received a key endorsement Wednesday from the World Trade Organization’s selection committee, moving her a step closer to becoming the WTO’s first female director-general, people familiar with the matter said.


The panel of three senior WTO ambassadors told Okonjo-Iweala that she had a wide margin of support and is best poised to command a consensus from the organization’s 164 members, according to the people, who declined to be identified because the discussions are confidential.

The recommendation helps Okonjo-Iweala clear one of the final hurdles in a complex and lengthy process aimed at naming the next leader of the WTO during the most turbulent period of its 25-year existence.

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.


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.”

Next Steps
Looking ahead, 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. decide to oppose a decision to appoint Okonjo-Iweala.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer 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.

An impasse in the WTO leadership race wouldn’t likely bother President Donald Trump, who has blasted the Geneva-based organization as a tool for globalists who allowed China’s economic rise to go unchecked.

If Trump wins the U.S. election next week, his aides have indicated they plan to continue to reshape the WTO with a narrower scope to resolve trade disputes.


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.






https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-10-28/wto-panel-said-to-recommend-nigeria-s-candidate-for-top-post?__twitter_impression=true

She will get it. Congratulations madam!

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

Similar thing US did to Okonjo-Iweala while contesting for the post of the World Bank President against Jim Yong Kim (another South Korean) in 2012.

US backed the South Korean against the Nigerian.

Hope this WTO DG appointment won’t be a de javu of the World Bank President iss of 2012, judging by the characters involved?

Let’s have our fingers crossed and continue to hope and pray that out candidate emerges even if US isn’t going to support her bid

Lalasticlala

Already she have bug thing haven score higher than Dozens of disqualified candidates earlier.

At this point the both of them are winners.

No be beans

damnnn niggarrrr

Anyhow he want be

Our baby girl must get it

Either She or Kemi Adeosun must win it for sure

Going by what Nigeria was able to achieve during NOI’s time as Finance Minister, I pray she eventually emerge as the DG of WTO.

She will get there if she is to get there...
If she is not to,she will not get there

Period!!!

But i pray she gets there

If the WTO itself recommended NOI for the top job, then she has gotten it.Congratulations madam.

I no tell foolish Igbos but them start to they curse me

gasparpisciotta:
Going by what Nigeria was able to achieve during NOI’s time as Finance Minister, I pray she eventually emerge as the DG of WTO.

What was she able to achieve as finance minister? The last time I checked, Nigeria was borrowing to pay salaries at a time of oil boom when NOI was finance minister.

Following

Already she have bug thing haven score higher than Dozens of disqualified candidates earlier. At this point the both of them are winners. No be beans