Okonjo-Iweala is 1st woman, African to lead world trade body
FRANKFURT, Germany — Nigerian economist Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was appointed Monday to head the World Trade Organization, becoming the first woman and first African to take on the role amid rising protectionism and disagreement over how the body decides cases involving billions in sales and thousands of jobs.
Okonjo- I weala, 66, was named director- general by representatives of the 164 countries that make up the W TO, which deals with the rules of trade between nations based on negotiated agreements.
She said during an online news conference that she was taking over at a time when the WTO “is facing so many challenges, and it' s clear tome that deep and wide-ranging reforms are needed... it cannot be business as usual.”
Her first priority would be quickly addressing the economic and health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as by lifting export restrictions on supplies and vaccines and encouraging the manufacturing of vaccines in more countries. Other big tasks include reforming the organization's dispute resolution process and finding ways for trade rules to deal with change such as digitalization and e-commerce.
She takes over after f our turbulent years in which U.S. President Donald Trump used new tariffs, or import taxes, against China and the European Union to push his America first trade agenda.
“It will not be easy because we also have the issue of lack of trust among members which has built up over ti me, not just among the U.S. and China and the U.S. and the EU ... but also between developing and developed country members, and we need to work through that,” she said.
She said that as the first woman and first African to hold the post, “I absolutely do feel an additional burden, I can't lie about that. Being the first woman and the first African means that one really has to perform.”
“All credit to members for electing me and making that history, but the bottom line is that if I want to really make Africa and women proud I have to produce results, and that's where my mind i s at now.”
The appointment, which takes effect March 1, came after U.S. President Joe Biden endorsed her candidacy, which had been blocked by Trump. Bid en' s move was a step toward his aim of supporting cooperative approaches to international problems after Trump's go-italone approach that launched multiple trade disputes.
But unblocking the appointment is only the start in dealing with U.S. concerns about the WTO that date to the Obama administration. The United States had blocked the appointment of new judges to the WTO's appellate body, essentially freezing its ability to resolve extended and complex trade disputes.
The U.S. government has argued that the trade organization is slow-moving and bureaucratic, ill-equipped to handle the problems posed by China's state-dominated economy and unduly restrictive on U.S. attempts to impose sanctions on countries that unfair ly subsidize their companies or export at unusually low prices.
Okonjo- I weala has been Nigeria' s finance minister and, briefly, foreign minister, and had a 25-year career at the World Bank as an advocate for economic growth and development in poorer countries.