WTO Secretary General comes out ‘to bat’ for global body at UAE forum
As Guyana continues to parade its credentials as one of the world’s ‘developing countries’ that seems set to ‘lift off’ into a developmental orbit, much of the rest of the world, and more particularly, developing and underdeveloped countries are wading troughs of thickening povertyspawned socio economic decline that is showing no sign of abating, according to World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
Speaking on Monday at the WTO summit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, the WTO head asserted that the global economy continues to be hard pressed to bear the weight of the “war, uncertainty and instability” that continues to place an increasingly unbearable burden on the global economy, reportedly urging the international community to move quickly to embrace reforms even as impending general elections across nearly half of the world’s population portend new challenges.
Addressing the WTO forum at a juncture where global poverty-related challenges are persisting ‘cheek by jowl’ with intense pockets of global conflict, the WTO Secretary-General asserted that these negative trends were continuing to unfold even as her own organization faces pressure from the United States and other nations. Worryingly, the former Nigerian diplomat appears to see no ‘silver lining’ behind what appears to be the dark clouds billowing around the global trading regime, pointing to escalating prices for food, energy and other essentials as issues that continue to ‘sting’ people’s pockets.
“People everywhere are feeling anxious about the future and this will be felt at the ballot box this year,” the WTO head told the WTO forum. In the course of her presentation, the WTO head criticized what appeared as pointed attacks on the WTO, notably drawing attention to the likelihood that United States’ presidential candidate, Donald Trump, who, during his previous term in office, had threatened to withdraw the US from the WTO, might resume the same posture should he return to the presidency. The WTO head made the assertion reportedly without mentioning the former US President by name.
Over time, there have been ‘running battles’ between the United States and the WTO over issues like China continuing to style itself a ‘developing country’ as it did when it became a member of the WTO in 2021. The United States and countries in Europe have been ‘tagged’ for accusing China of hampering access of emerging industries and pressuring foreign companies to hand over Western technology; Washington has also accused Beijing of saturating the global market with cheap steel, aluminum, the report on the WTO Secretary General’s presentation says. She asserted that the WTO is “a multilateral trading system” which she said had served as “a global public good since it was created 75 years ago.”