Director-General Roberto Azevêdo has announced that he will step down as the World Trade Organization chief on August 31, an unexpected announcement that has caught the officials at the organization by a surprise. Azevêdo’s resignation has come one year earlier before his second term at the helm of WTO expires and in the middle of harsh coronavirus impact criticism from the US President Donald Trump who has never stopped slamming the Geneva-based body since 2016 when he was elected. WTO has however excused itself saying it lacks the ability to prevent governments from imposing crisis-related restrictions on exports.
UK’s Financial Times reports that Kenya’s Sports and Heritage Cabinet Secretary Ambassador Amina Mohamed and British former EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson are among the top contestants for the WTO’s top post. Ms. Mohamed, who had been nominated in 2013 before the post went to the Brazilian Ambassador would be the first female leader at the organization if she wins and is now out to seek united support from African governments to beat the British’s Mandelson. In an interview with the Financial Times, Amina says she wants to streamline the organization’s judicial processes and improve transparency about governments’ trade-distorting actions. CS Amina emphasized that the WTO’s director-general needs to be someone experienced in working within the organization.
“We need someone with the right experience, someone who is committed to the multilateral system?but also has the political stature to be an effective facilitator and a consensus-builder. If that person happens to be African or happens to be a woman, I think it will be so much better,” she told the Financial Times.
“It is important to be inclusive and show that the membership knows that every part of the globe can make a positive contribution to the running of the WTO,” said Ambassador Amina Mohammed.
Amina, Kenya’s former ambassador to the WTO has chaired some of the most important decision-making bodies within the World Trade Organization, one of them being WTO’s 10th Ministerial Conference held in Nairobi in 2015. She is believed to be best suited for the job by African Governments despite worries that the Trump administration could influence the appointment of the trade’s body top boss. Experts say an African stands a better chance to grab the seat considering China’s President Xi Jinping would not allow the US to take over the World Trade Organization following the two states’ escalating trade conflicts. In 2017, Ms. Amina Mohamed lost the battle for Africa Union’s top commission post to Chadian Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat.
Director-General Roberto Azevêdo said his early departure would ease member governments’ efforts in finding his successor. Roberto said his tenure as director-general of the World Trade Organization has been the most demanding, exciting, and gratifying period in his professional life. He asked the WTO’s member countries to move swiftly to have someone in place as soon as possible to start shaping the organization’s post-COVID-19 realities. The WTO has 164 members and 24 observer governments. Liberia became the 163rd member when it joined the body on 14 July 2016, and Afghanistan became the 164th member on 29 July 2016. The European Union and each of the EU countries is the trade body’s member in their own capacities.
