The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is poised to get a female director general for the first time in its 25-year history after the list of candidates was trimmed down to two Members of the international trade body shortlisted Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee to proceed to the final round of the vote. Okonjo-Iweala, the two-time former Nigeria’s minister and one-time foreign affairs minister, is the only African candidate remaining in the race. Amina C. Mohamed of Kenya who had been endorsed by the East African Community after making it to the second round of the selection process didn’t garner enough support to proceed to the final round. Okonjo-Iweala is seen as a potential candidate considering her caliber as predicted by different experts. She served as the managing director of the World Bank and as chairperson at the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. She’s currently on the board of Twitter, a popular microblogging platform. Korea’s Myung-hee, on the other hand, makes it a tougher race. The contender is Korea’s current trade minister, the first female to hold that position in the country. Myung-hee has 25 years of trade experience during which she helped South Korea to expand its trade network through bilateral treaties with China, the U.K. and the U.S. The race to select the person who will lead WTO comes as a time the organization is facing significant challenges, one of which is the trade war between China and the US which has paralysed the organization. Roberto Azevedo, who stepped down on August 30 as the DG of the WTO after seven years at the helm of the body, said during a farewell that the next candidate comes at a critical time. The appellate body, the highest authority in the organisation’s dispute settlement process, ceased to function late last year after the US blocked the appointment of new judges to replace two who retired. “The WTO’s future cannot be taken for granted. Updating the system is necessary. Some might believe that the pressures afflicting the WTO are localised, and therefore temporary, but they are not,” he said then. WTO General Council Chairman, David Walker of New Zealand plans to formally announce the results to the institution’s delegates on Thursday morning in Geneva.
