ExplainerWTO director general: will it be Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala or South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee?
- Brazilian Roberto Azevedo stepped down as World Trade Organization (WTO) director general at the end of August 2020, a year before the expiry of his mandate
- Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee are the remaining candidates in the race to become the seventh head of the global trade body
What is the World Trade Organization (WTO)?
From 1948 to 1994, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) provided the rules for much of world trade. The WTO’s creation marked the biggest reform of international trade since the end of the second world war.
According to its website, the WTO is an international organisation whose primary purpose is to open trade for the benefit of all.
It has 164 members, which are involved in 98 per cent of world trade. The WTO is run by its member governments, and all major decisions are made by the membership as a whole, either by ministers who usually meet at least once every two years or by their ambassadors or delegates who meet regularly in Geneva.
What is the director general?
The director general of the WTO is responsible for supervising and directing the organisation’s administrative operations. The WTO has 623 secretariat staff, with a budget of 197 million Swiss francs (US$221 million) for 2020.
Why is there an election for a new director general?
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