Okonjo-Iweala Shortlisted For Final Stage Of WTO Job

Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance and the country’s candidate for the position of the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has been selected to proceed to the final stage in the race to lead the Geneva-based global trade body.

The other candidate that would contest the position with her in the final stage is South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee.

The final round for the selection process of the WTO DG is expected to hold on November 7

This was announced on Wednesday after the final rounds of voting for the remaining five candidates.

The five remaining candidates before the selection were Ngozi Okonio-Iweala (Nigeria), Liam Fox (UK), Amina Chawahir Mohamed Iibril (Kenya), Yoc Myung-hee (South Korea), and Mohammad Maziad Al-Tuwaijri (Saudi Arabia).

Okonjo-Iweala had insisted that she is the best candidate to end the United States- China trade war when she gets the position of the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation.

She said the five-day abduction of her mother, Kamene Okonjo, in 2012 was more challenging compared with brokering peace between China and the US.

She said, “Would you be more scared if your mother was kidnapped and held to ransom with a demand that you resign your job publicly on television – or else you would not see her alive – or if you said to the US and China, you have to bridge your differences?

“It’s going to be a tough task but you can’t compare it with what I’ve had to go through,” she told The Telegraph.

In a monitored Tweet she said that it would be tough reforming the WTO.

She said, “WTO reform will be tough – but I’ve delivered hard reform before, including reform of countries’ trade regimes. In addition to this, I’m the only candidate working at the intersection of trade and public health.”