For the first time, a woman will chair the World Trade Organization

GENEVA.- Nigerian Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has become today the first woman and the first African to lead the World Trade Organization (WTO), an institution almost paralyzed by trade disputes in the world order.

At 66, Okonjo-Iweala enters the inner circle of women in senior institutional positions around the world. It is “a historic moment”, summed up the WTO after his appointment.

“It is both motivating and intimidating as I take the helm of the WTO at a time of great uncertainty and great challenges,” said Okonjo-Iweala, who will take office in March for a renewable four-year term. .

“A strong WTO is essential if we are to fully and quickly recover from the devastation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic,” he continued.

“Our organization is facing many challenges but by working together, collectively, we can make the WTO stronger, more agile and better adapted to current realities”, added the new director general of the institution, based in Geneva, and which has 164 member countries. .

Among her long list of tasks, the official ensured that her top three priorities over the next 100 days were: pandemic response, fisheries subsidies and the dispute settlement body (the tribunal de l ‘WTO) which was torpedoed by the government of former US President Donald Trump.

Her appointment was quickly greeted by other women, also at the head of powerful institutions.

“Congratulations to my friend Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who became the first female Director General of the WTO,” she tweeted. Christine Lagarde, first president of the European Central Bank and former director of the IMF, praising “its firm will and determination (which) will lead it to relentlessly promote free trade for the benefit of the populations of the world”.

For her part, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen said she was “very happy to see an African woman at the head of the WTO”. This is “a historic moment for the whole world,” he said.

Okonjo-Iweala was the only candidate remaining in the race, thanks to a broad consensus and the support of the African Union and the European Union, as well as the United States, following the change of authority.

End of October, the Trump administration, which in four years had done everything to weaken the organization, blocked the consensus that has emerged around the Nigerian.

“She was not chosen because she is a woman or because she is from Africa, but because (…) she stood out as the candidate with the best qualifications, experience and the qualities for this arduous task, “said a European diplomat.

Twice Minister of Finance and Head of Nigeria’s External Relations Portfolio for two months, Okonjo-Iweala started his career at the World Bank in 1982, where he worked for 25 years. In 2012, she failed to become president of this financial institution and the post went to the American-Korean Jim Yong Kim.

He will now be at the head of an institution which, since its creation in 1995, has been managed by six men: three Europeans, a New Zealander, a Thai and a Brazilian.

Agencia AFP

THE NATION

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