Egyptian urges WTO to pick African as chief
GENEVA: As the World Trade Organization prepares to search for a new director-general, it should commit to finally handing the top job to an African, a candidate for the post said. Hamid Mamdouh, a former Egyptian diplomat, told AFP in an interview this week that African countries were determined to take the reins of the organization for the first time.
“The African Union decided back in July 2019 that the next director-general of the WTO should be from Africa,” he said. “It’s a strong sentiment,” said the 67-year-old, who spent more than 20 years in high-level WTO posts.
“Africa never held that position before and it’s time, because all other regions have occupied that position.”
Single African candidate?
Mamdouh, who also holds Swiss citizenship after living in the country for 35 years, is not the only African expected to bid for the job. Nigerian Yonov Frederick Agah, a WTO deputy director-general, and Eloi Laourou, Benin’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, were also preselected by the African Union in February for consideration. The AU had been aiming to whittle the choice down to a single African candidate by July, well ahead of the initially scheduled kick-off date for a months-long election process in December.
But earlier this month, the WTO’s current chief, Roberto Azevedo of Brazil, suddenly announced his “personal decision” to step down on August 31 — a full year before his mandate expires.
The surprise announcement forced the global trade body to accelerate the nomination process, with anyone wishing to replace him given from June 8 to July 8 to announce their candidacy. It remains to be seen if African countries will manage to rally around a single candidate by then. And reaching consensus could be further complicated if Amina Mohamed, a Kenyan politician and former diplomat who ran against Azevedo when he won his first term in 2013, joins the race, as some expect she will.
Whoever wins the top spot will have their work cut out for them, at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has pushed the global economy and international trade into turmoil, facing downturns not seen since the Great Depression.