[ad_1]
Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, newly chosen as head of the World Trade Organization (WTO), said on Tuesday she would push for concrete results to tackle the twin economic and health crisis facing the world is confronted.
Its immediate goals are to ensure the production and distribution of vaccines around the world, not just for rich countries, and to resist the push towards protectionism that worsened during the pandemic, so that free trade can contribute to economic recovery.
“I think the WTO is too important to allow it to be slowed down, paralyzed and moribund,” she told AFP in an interview. “It is not fair.”
She will take the helm on March 1 of an institution weighed down and increasingly distraught, in particular by the open hostility of Donald Trump’s administration.
Amid the turmoil, including the US ruling that closed the dispute settlement court in December 2019 over complaints about handling disputes with China, his predecessor resigned last August, a year before the end. of its mandate.
Selected by members on Monday, after the administration of US President Joe Biden backed her candidacy, Okonjo-Iweala vowed to revive the trade body which she says has lost its focus of helping improve conditions life of real people.
“I believe that the WTO can contribute more strongly to a resolution of the Covid-19 pandemic by helping to improve access and accessibility of vaccines to poor countries,” she said.
Push vaccine
“It is really in the interest of every country to see everyone get vaccinated because you are not safe until everyone is safe.”
Nigerian Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is helped by her son Okechukwu Iweala (right) as she works on her acceptance speech at her home in Potomac, Maryland, near Washington DC. By Eric BARADAT (AFP) Some countries, such as India and South Africa, have pushed for a suspension of trade rules on patents to allow for faster deployment of vaccines.
But rather than being caught up in yet another feud between WTO members, Okonjo-Iweala said the organization could promote a faster path.
“Instead of spending time discussing these, we should look at what the private sector is doing” with licensing agreements, to allow vaccine production in multiple countries – which she noted that AstraZeneca has already done in India.
“The private sector has already looked for a solution because it wants to participate in efforts to reach poor countries and poor,” she said.
In addition, the WTO must work to avoid the trend of restrictions on the export of medical and therapeutic devices, as well as the possibility of restrictions on the vaccines themselves.
While it’s natural for politicians to help their own countries first, she warned that supply chains are tightly knit and cannot be quickly disentangled to create domestic production.
Trade negotiators just want to win
The MIT-trained economist, who was Nigeria’s first woman and longest-serving finance minister, who is also a U.S. citizen, insists the WTO must return to its original function of helping countries improve the standard of living of their population.
The former WTO director-general quit his post a year earlier amid turmoil within the organization caused in part by open hostility from former US President Donald Trump and attempts to cripple activities. By Fabrice COFFRINI (AFP) “It’s about creating jobs, decent work for people. It’s about … improving lives,” she said.
“Trade certainly has a role to play in the recovery” after the Covid-19 economic crisis.
Even before the pandemic triggered a global recession, the organization had lost sight of that goal, she said, lamenting the example of negotiations over a fisheries subsidy deal that had dragged on for two decades.
“This cannot continue. We have to see it through. We cannot afford to fail on this point.”
The talks, which aim to end the subsidies that lead to overfishing, failed to reach a deal by the end of 2020 deadline.
She attributed some of the calcification to the dominance of negotiators, which she called the WTO’s “Achilles heel”.
“Geneva is full of negotiating experts, but the problems have not been solved, they have worsened,” she said. “For them it’s about winning or not losing and so they block each other out.”
The WTO needs “something entirely different” to make a difference, she said, dismissing criticism from some sectors that it lacks trade experience.
“You need strong political skills, you need the ability to maneuver,” she said, adding that she could serve as a bridge between developed and developing countries, also building on her 25-year career. at the World Bank.
She also intends to push for the pandemic-delayed WTO ministerial meeting to begin by the end of this year, which will allow her to spark movement on critical issues.
First wife, again
Okonjo-Iweala will once again be the first woman to occupy a key leadership role, assuming the leadership of the WTO for a term until August 31, 2025, but renewable.
She agreed it was hard and thankless work, but said it made her even more passionate about the results, so that in the future no one could question placing a woman in this. role.
“It means I need people to support me even more. I need more cooperation,” she said.
Source link
