Africa Press-Nigeria:<\/p>\n
World Trade Organization members have selected two final candidates \u2013 Nigeria\u2019s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and South Korea\u2019s Yoo Myung-hee, to advance to the final round in the race to lead the Geneva-based trade body, Bloomberg reported.<\/p>\n
Okonjo-Iweala was Nigeria\u2019s finance minister during the tenures of former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan. She has experience working at international governance bodies as a former managing director of the World Bank and as a chairman at the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization.<\/p>\n
Ms Yoo, on her part, is South Korea\u2019s trade minister. She has helped expand her country\u2019s trade network through bilateral accords with the U.S., China and the UK.<\/p>\n
The WTO may be having its first female director-general in its 25-year history.<\/p>\n
WTO\u2019s General Council Chairman, Mr. David Walker, is expected to formally announce the results to the institution\u2019s delegates in Geneva on Thursday.<\/p>\n
United Kingdom\u2019s Liam Fox, Kenya\u2019s Amina Chawahir Mohamed Jibril, and Saudi Arabia\u2019s Mohammad Maziad Al-Tuwaijri did not secure enough support in the second round of consultations, Bloomberg reported.<\/p>\n
The third and final phase of the consultation process would begin later this month and run until November 6, after which the WTO would name a consensus winner of the race. This clouds the outlook for the selection process in the United States\u2019 presidential election holding on November 3.<\/p>\n
The WTO makes decisions on a consensus basis, and a lack of American support for any of the finalists could mean delays in picking the new director-general.<\/p>\n
If WTO members are unable to select a leader by consensus, a vote requiring a qualified majority could be held as a last resort, which would be an unprecedented development in the organisation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Africa Press-Nigeria: World Trade Organization members have selected two final candidates \u2013 Nigeria\u2019s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and South Korea\u2019s Yoo Myung-hee, to advance to the final round in the race to lead the Geneva-based trade body, Bloomberg reported. Okonjo-Iweala was Nigeria\u2019s finance minister during the tenures of former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan. She has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":3349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,29,14],"tags":[938,479],"class_list":["post-30905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-goodluck-johnathon","tag-obasanjo"],"yoast_head":"\n