Nigerian among two finalists for top World Trade Organization job

World Trade Organization members have selected Nigeria's Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and South Korea's Yoo Myung-hee as the two final candidates to advance to the last round in the race for director-general of the international body.

Okonjo-Iweala is a global finance expert, an economist and an international development professional with over 30 years' experience working in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. She was recently appointed African Union special envoy to mobilize international financial support in the fight against COVID-19, as well as envoy for the WHO's access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator.

Previously, she served as Nigeria's finance minister and foreign minister. She also had a 25-year career at the World Bank as a development economist, rising to the position of managing director of operations.

Yoo Myung-hee is South Korea's trade minister, who is said to have helped expand her country's trade network through bilateral accords with China, the US and the UK.

In a tweet sent out on Oct 5, Okonjo-Iweala sought to assure WTO members that she has the right experience and spirit to steer the Geneva-based body into the future.

"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," Okonjo-Iweala said.

David Walker, the WTO General Council Chairman, is set to formally announce the results to the institution's delegates on Thursday in Geneva. With this development, history is set to be made as the WTO is expected to have its first female director-general in its 25-year history.

Okonjo-Iweala and Yoo beat Kenya's Amina Mohamed, the UK's Liam Fox and Saudi Arabia's Mohamed Al-Tuwaijrito, in securing a chance in the second round of consultations. The vacancy for the top WTO job arose when Brazil's Roberto Azevedo decided to step down at the end of August, a year before his term was due to end.

According to the calendar rolled out by the WTO General Council, the third and final phase of the consultation process will begin later this month and run until Nov 6, after which the WTO will name a consensus winner of the race.

However, if at the end of the selection exercises the WTO members are unable to select a leader by consensus, a vote requiring a qualified majority could be held as a last resort.