Africa will now have a voice in the global trade market – Courage Martey

Economic news for Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

02/16/2021

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a senior economist based in Nigeria and the United States, was eventually appointed director general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) after she crashed through glass ceilings as a woman.

As the first woman and the first African to have appointed the Director-General of the 164-member World Trade Organization (WTO) after navigating the body’s opaque electoral processes, Okonjo-Iweala will begin working with a quotient of respect.

His appointment was greeted with great joy around the world, but particularly in Africa.

Speaking to an economist and research expert at Databank Courage Martey, he noted that it was a good call and that it would put Africa at a good advantage to also participate in the policies being developed for business ventures on the continent.

“This should add another force to the African voice on the negotiating table or in global trade relations and to that extent you would expect that while there are processes to engage in international trade, its presence there should add the African voice to the whole relationship. This is very important as we also start the African Continental Free Trade Area which will become the largest union in the world, ”he said.

The nomination of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is all the more remarkable since in November 2020, then-US President Donald Trump ordered his trade envoy Robert Lighthizer to block his nomination despite his winning support of over 70 % of WTO members.

Then Joe Biden defeated Trump in the US election, triggering several foreign policy about-faces – among them, “strong support” was needed for Okonjo-Iweala. And at 3 p.m. Geneva time on February 15, the WTO held its general council online to confirm the appointment of the new director general.

Okonjo-Iweala is expected at the organization’s headquarters this week according to diplomats in Geneva. After that, she will embark on the task of reforming, perhaps rethinking, the WTO for the pandemic and post-pandemic era.

Okonjo-Iweala sees trade as an engine of growth, development and rising living standards, which she said fell within the original mission of the WTO. This has long been relegated to the battles over trade dispute settlement and geopolitical rivalries between China and the United States.