{"id":46813,"date":"2021-02-15T21:02:59","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T20:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/?p=46813"},"modified":"2021-02-15T21:02:59","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T20:02:59","slug":"okonjo-iweala-makes-history-as-head-of-wto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/okonjo-iweala-makes-history-as-head-of-wto\/","title":{"rendered":"Okonjo-Iweala Makes History As Head Of WTO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three months after the Trump administration rejected her, former Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala received unanimous backing on Monday to become the first woman and first African director-general of the World Trade Organization.<\/p>\n

A self-declared \u201cdoer\u201d with a track record of taking on seemingly intractable problems, Okonjo-Iweala will have her work cut out for her at the trade body, even with Donald Trump, who had threatened to pull the United States out of the organisation, no longer in the White House.<\/p>\n

According to Reuters, as director-general, a position that wields limited formal power, Okonjo-Iweala, 66, will need to broker international trade talks in the face of persistent U.S.-China conflict; respond to pressure to reform trade rules; and counter protectionism heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

In her acceptance speech at the WTO, she said that getting a trade deal at the next major ministerial meeting would be a \u201ctop priority\u201d and also urged members to reject vaccine nationalism, according to a delegate attending the closed meeting, which was held virtually.<\/p>\n

In the same speech, she described the challenges facing the body as \u201cnumerous and tricky but not insurmountable\u201d. She is set to begin work on March 1.<\/p>\n

The U.S. delegate said that Washington was committed to working closely with her and would be a \u201cconstructive partner\u201d while China\u2019s delegate pledged \u201cfull support\u201d for her.<\/p>\n

EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said he looked forward to working closely with her to drive \u201cmuch-needed reform of the institution\u201d.<\/p>\n

A 25-year veteran of the World Bank, where she oversaw an $81 billion portfolio, Okonjo-Iweala ran against seven other candidates by espousing a belief in trade\u2019s ability to lift people out of poverty.<\/p>\n

She studied development economics at Harvard after experiencing civil war in Nigeria as a teenager. She returned to the country in 2003 to serve as finance minister and backers point to her hard-nose negotiating skills that helped seal a deal to cancel billions of dollars of Nigerian debt with the Paris Club of creditor nations in 2005.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe brings stature, she brings experience, a network and a temperament of trying to get things done, which is quite a welcome lot in my view,\u201d former WTO chief Pascal Lamy told Reuters last week. \u201cI think she\u2019s a good choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Key to her success will be her ability to operate in the centre of a \u201cU.S.-EU-China triangle\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

The endorsement of the Biden administration cleared the last obstacle to her appointment.<\/p>\n

SWEET BUT STRONG<\/p>\n

Okonjo-Iweala becomes one of the few female heads of a major multilateral body. When she joins the WTO\u2019s Geneva lakeside headquarters her portrait is set to be hung beside others of men, mostly white and from rich countries.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s main criticism of her was that she lacked direct trade experience compared to her main South Korean rival and even supporters say she will have to quickly get up to speed on the technicalities of trade negotiations.<\/p>\n

She has rejected this, saying that she has plenty of experience of trade plus other expertise.<\/p>

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\u201cThe qualities I have are even better,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Raised by academics, the mother-of-four earned a reputation for hard work and modesty amid the pomp of Nigeria\u2019s governing class, acquaintances say.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is persistent and stubborn,\u201d said Kingsley Moghalu, former deputy governor of Nigeria\u2019s central bank who worked with her when she was the country\u2019s first female finance minister.<\/p>\n

Nigeria\u2019s President Muhammadu Buhari welcomed her election, saying it brought \u201cmore joy and honour to the country\u2019<\/p>\n

Her appointment also was welcomed by people in the streets of Nigeria\u2019s capital Abuja where Ibe Joy, who works in marketing, said Okonjo-Iweala\u2019s achievements were an inspiration to young women. \u201cIf she can do it we all can do it,\u201d said Joy.<\/p>\n

REFORMING THE UNREFORMABLE<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old WTO that Okonjo-Iweala inherits after a six-month leadership gap is partially paralysed, thanks to the Trump administration which blocked appointments to its top appeals body that acts as the global arbiter of trade disputes.<\/p>\n

But even before Trump, negotiators had struggled to clinch deals that must be agreed by consensus, with the United States and other developed WTO members arguing that developing countries, notably China, cannot cling on to exceptions and that rules need to change to reflect China\u2019s economic growth.<\/p>\n

Okonjo-Iweala, who is a special envoy for the World Health Organization on COVID-19 and, until recently chair of the board of global vaccine alliance Gavi, has told Reuters that trade\u2019s contribution to public health would be a priority.<\/p>\n

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called Okonjo-Iweala the \u201cWTO\u2019s perfect chief\u201d.<\/p>\n

The WTO currently faces deadlock over an issue of waiving intellectual property rights for COVID-19 drugs, with many wealthy countries opposed.<\/p>\n

High on the to-do list will also be fisheries subsidies, the subject of the WTO\u2019s main multilateral talks that missed a deadline to conclude by end-2020.<\/p>\n

Asked about the challenges ahead, she joked that a book she wrote about fixing Nigeria\u2019s broken institutions could well apply to today\u2019s WTO: \u2018Reforming the Unreformable\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel I can solve the problems. I\u2019m a known reformer, not someone who talks about it,\u201d she told Reuters in an earlier interview. \u201cI\u2019ve actually done it\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three months after the Trump administration rejected her, former Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala received unanimous backing on Monday to become the first woman and first African director-general of the World Trade Organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15364,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[8206],"coauthors":[2391],"class_list":["post-46813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news","tag-okonjo-iweala-as-head-of-wto"],"yoast_head":"\nOkonjo-Iweala Makes History As Head Of WTO - National Wire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Three months after the Trump administration rejected her, former Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala received unanimous\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/okonjo-iweala-makes-history-as-head-of-wto\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Okonjo-Iweala Makes History As Head Of WTO - 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