'Sole rejection' plunges race for WTO top job into uncertainty

GENEVA－The World Trade Organization's bid to select a new leader was plunged into uncertainty on Wednesday after the United States rejected Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria's former finance minister, as the global trade watchdog's next director-general.

Just six days before the US election in which trade is a hot topic, Washington struck another blow at the WTO, which US President Donald Trump has described as "horrible" and biased.

Washington has already paralyzed the WTO's role as global arbiter on trade by blocking appointments to its appeals panel. Now it threatens to render it leaderless for weeks or months to come.

The WTO itself has called a meeting for Nov 9, less than a week after the Nov 3 presidential election, by which time it hopes to have secured full backing for Okonjo-Iweala.

The decision needs to be approved by consensus, however, meaning any of the 164 WTO members could block her appointment.

Three WTO ambassadors, the "troika" charged with finding a successor to Brazilian Roberto Azevedo, had decided the Nigerian should be the next chief as she had secured wide cross-regional backing.

"All of the delegations that expressed their views today expressed very strong support for the process, for the troika and for the outcome. Except for one," WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell told reporters after the closed-door meeting, specifying the one was the US.

Since early October, Okonjo-Iweala had been facing off against the other female candidate, South Korea's Minister for Trade Yoo Myung-hee, in the final round of the race to become the new WTO director-general.

Washington continued to back Yoo in the final round of a more than four-month selection process.

Rockwell said there was likely to be "frenzied activity" before the Nov 9 meeting to secure the required consensus.

Many members, including the US, declined to name their preference publicly before Wednesday, although some African, Caribbean and other states had voiced support for Okonjo-Iweala. The European Union endorsed her on Oct 26.

The WTO's leadership vacuum was created after outgoing chief Azevedo stepped down a year early in August. The WTO is currently being steered by four deputies.

Agencies - Xinhua