TWN Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Jun25/10)
11 June 2025
Third World Network

WTO: DG considers appointing Indian official as senior advisor in her cabinet
Published in SUNS #10239 dated 11 June 2025

Geneva, 10 Jun (D. Ravi Kanth) — The World Trade Organization’s Director-General, Ms Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is considering appointing a senior Indian official to her cabinet, a move that is being seen as an apparent attempt to “appease” India, which continues to adopt tough positions at the WTO, including on the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement (IFDA) among others, said people familiar with the development.

India has not ratified the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies adopted at the WTO’s 12th ministerial conference (MC12) in Geneva in June 2022, nor is it ready to join the consensus on the second phase of the said Agreement (Fish 2), whose negotiations remain blocked since the WTO’s 13th ministerial conference (MC13) in Abu Dhabi in March 2024, said people who asked not to be quoted.

Furthermore, India’s opposition to any attempt to weaken the special and differential treatment (S&DT) provisions or on the proposal on “differentiation” among developing countries for availing of S&DT is well known, said people who asked not to be quoted.

Meanwhile, in another development, it appears that the WTO’s Deputy Director-General Ms Angela Ellard from the US is leaving the organization soon, and her post could be filled by another American candidate, said people familiar with this development.

“Deputy Director-General Angela Ellard will retire at the end of her term in August and plans to return to Washington to be with family,” the WTO’s spokesperson Ismaila Dieng said. +