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TWN Info
Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Oct20/07) Washington DC, 8 Oct (D. Ravi Kanth) – The chair of the WTO General Council, Ambassador David Walker from New Zealand, has declared Ms Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from Nigeria and Ms Yoo Myung-hee from South Korea as the two finalists in the race to become the new director-general of the global trade body, trade envoys told the SUNS. At a brief Heads of Delegation (HoD) meeting, held in-person and through remote participation on 8 October, Ambassador Walker informed members of the results of the second round of consultations in which three candidates – Ms Amina Mohamed from Kenya, Mr Mohammad Maziad Al-Tuwaijri from Saudi Arabia and Mr Liam Fox from the United Kingdom – have been asked to withdraw from the DG race on grounds that they would be “least likely to attract consensus,” said trade envoys, who asked not to be identified. In the first round of the consultations held last month, three other candidates – Dr Jesus Seade Kuri from Mexico, Mr Abdulhameed Mamdouh from Egypt and Ambassador Tudor Ulianovschi from Moldova – were eliminated from the race. At the HoD meeting on 8 October, the General Council (GC) chair said that he held consultations along with his two facilitators – the chair of the Dispute Settlement Body Ambassador Dacio Castillo (Honduras) and the chair of the Trade Policy Review Body Ambassador Harald Aspelund (Iceland) – during 24 September and 6 October 2020. Ambassador Walker cited paragraphs 17 and 18 of his earlier communication (Job/GC/244) dated 18 September 2020 concerning the “substance and results of the consultations”, including the breadth of support, the distribution of preferences across geographic regions and the category of members such as developed, developing, and least-developed countries. On the basis of the guidelines set out by the former GC chair Ambassador Shahid Bashir from Pakistan in document Job/GC/243, as well as by him in document Job/GC/244, the GC chair said that three candidates – Ms Amina Mohamed from Kenya, Mr Mohammad Maziad Al-Tuwaijri from Saudi Arabia and Mr Liam Fox of the United Kingdom – were asked to withdraw from the race on 7 October. In the final round, he said, members will need to indicate their preference among the two remaining candidates in the race – Nigeria’s Ms Ngozi and Korea’s Ms Yoo. The final round of consultations will begin on 19 October and conclude on 27 October. “This is the final round of consultations where we can make a recommendation to the GC,” the GC chair said. Ambassador Walker explained that each member will be asked “what is your preference”, suggesting that the preferences expressed in the second round will not be taken into consideration during the final round. Members were asked to indicate two preferences in the second round. The GC chair emphasized that negative preferences will not be accepted, said several trade envoys, who asked not to be quoted. At the HoD meeting, Kenya expressed regret, saying that their candidate Ms Amina Mohamed was the “most qualified person to steer the organization”, to the prosperity of the multilateral trading system. Saudi Arabia thanked the GC chair for conducting the selection process in an orderly manner, while the UK trade envoy thanked the chair as to how he carried out the selection process in each round. At the end of the meeting, Canada raised its flag to complain about “media leaks”, saying that such leaks are inconsistent with the “confidentiality” of the selection process. Commenting on the three candidates who were asked to withdraw from the race at the end of the second round, it is clear that the geographical spread of support may have contributed to their elimination, said a trade envoy, who asked not to be quoted. The African countries largely cast their preferences in favour of Ms Ngozi from Nigeria and Ms Mohamed from Kenya, the trade envoy suggested. Korea may have secured support from a few countries in Africa, the trade envoy suggested. However, Ms Mohamed failed to garner support from Europe, with the EU having cast its 27 preferences in favour of Ms Ngozi from Nigeria and Ms Yoo from Korea, the trade envoy suggested. The EU’s bloc voting also tilted the scales against the UK’s Mr Fox, and Saudi Arabia’s Mr Al-Tuwaijri, according to media reports. In Asia, both Ms Yoo and Ms Ngozi seem to have received considerable support while Kenya’s Ms Mohamed did not get much support as some big Asian countries did not support the Kenyan candidate because of her alleged role in reportedly undermining the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations at the WTO’s tenth ministerial conference in Nairobi, Kenya, in December 2015, said an Asian trade envoy, who asked not to be quoted. As regards the support from the Americas, the UK’s Mr Fox secured significant support while Nigeria’s Ms Ngozi and Korea’s Ms Yoo received modest support, the trade envoy said. Interestingly, the three losing candidates did not raise any complaints unlike in the first round when Egypt had complained against the DG selection process. In the last DG selection process in 2013, Ms Mohamed was asked to withdraw at the end of the first round. She had sought the figures of support, which the then GC chair Ambassador Bashir refused to divulge on grounds of confidentiality.
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