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Can Africa’s first WTO chief help her own continent or avert US-China cold war?
- Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to become director general of World Trade Organization after US dropped its objection
- But the US has been obstructive in the WTO and some analysts argue the body faces a struggle to regain its relevance
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Africa is to have its first director general of the World Trade Organization, with Nigeria’s former finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala set to be confirmed as its head when members meet in the next few days. She will also make history as the first woman to lead the body.
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The Nigerian’s appointment was sealed when South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee dropped her bid for the job and the United States lifted a veto on Okonjo-Iweala that had been exercised by its former president Donald Trump.
But analysts said Okonjo-Iweala could face insurmountable challenges amid questions over the effectiveness of the 26-year-old intergovernmental body, which regulates trade between nations. The previous director general, Brazil’s Roberto Azevedo, resigned last August with a year left to run on his term, while trade tensions between the US and China remain unresolved.
William Reinsch, a trade expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the 66-year-old Okonjo-Iweala, a development economist, needed to reassert the organisation’s three main functions: negotiation, dispute settlement and notification of measures.
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“All three are essentially failing, so she has a lot of work ahead of her,” he said.
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