Nigerian Okonjo-Iweala assumes a second term at the head of the WTO under the threat of a trade war

The 166 member states of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreed this Friday by consensus that Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala will serve a second term at the head of this multilateral entity, according to the organization reported. The decision was agreed this Friday at an extraordinary meeting of the General Council of the WTO, after being the only candidate who presented herself.

Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance minister who made history in 2021 by becoming the organization’s first female and first African director-general, has broad support among WTO members. In September he announced that he would run again, with the aim of completing “unfinished business.”

Okonjo-Iweala will begin his second four-year term on September 1, 2025, which means that it will coincide with that of the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, who threatens to impose heavy tariffs on products from Mexico, Canada and China .

The re-elected head of the WTO has a difficult road ahead due to the trade wars that Trump may provoke from the White House. Precisely, sources from the organization indicated that the General Council of the organization was convened in an extraordinary manner to accelerate the appointment process and avoid any risk of it being blocked by Trump, whose teams and allies have criticized both Okonjo-Iweala and the WTO. in the past. Already in 2020, Trump gave his support to a rival candidate and tried to block the first term of Okonjo-Iweala, who only gained the support of the United States when Joe Biden arrived at the White House.

The WTO, with three decades of existence, is experiencing low times due to the blockade that has persisted for years in certain key negotiations, such as those that seek to reduce the levels of distortion (created by subsidies and other aid) in the agriculture sector, but also because for several years it has not been able to fully fulfill its role as a forum to resolve trade conflicts between countries, since its highest court of appeal does not function.

This is due to the United States veto for the nomination of its members, since all those who previously fulfilled that role have exhausted their mandates one after another, which is why trade disputes that reach the WTO cannot be seen until the last instance of its dispute resolution system, which functions as a kind of arbitration system.

The Norwegian ambassador and president of the General Council of the WTO (the body that brings together the heads of the 166 national delegations), Petter Ølberg, announced Okongo-Iweala’s re-election to the press and stated that this decision reflects “the broad recognition of his leadership and his strategic vision for the future of the WTO.

WTO director hopes to work creatively with new Trump administration in the US

“We have a packed agenda to fulfill… and we have the firm intention of getting to work immediately, without stopping, to try to achieve these results,” Okonjo-Iweala told reporters, citing WTO reforms among her priorities. and fisheries negotiations.

The director general of the WTO said she hopes to work in the coming years “constructively and creatively” with the new Donald Trump Administration. To questions related to the president-elect’s announcement that one of the first measures he will take when he returns to the White House on January 20 will be to increase tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, China and Europe, the trade official avoided entering. in controversies and noted that “there are still no details about what is being planned, so it is premature to speak out.”

Okonjo-Iweala said that what is desirable at this time would be to avoid trade conflicts that could affect the global trading system, but that in order to assess this risk we must first see what the trade policies adopted will be in practice. He added that to advance the issues that the WTO has pending, “all countries must start working with each other.”

“The WTO and its rules cover between 75% and 80% of global trade in goods and I don’t think anyone wants to call this into question. Rather, I think there is a general recognition that the organization must be supported and must continue to work “he commented at a press conference.