South Korean trade minister Yoo Myung-hee on Friday withdrew from the race to become head of the World Trade Organisation, Seoul said, clearing the way for Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to become the global body’s first woman and first African director-general.
Yoo had consulted with the United States — her prime backer — and other major countries and “decided to renounce her candidacy”, South Korea’s trade ministry said in a statement.
The process to name a successor to Roberto Azevedo had been deadlocked since October, when key WTO ambassadors tapped Okonjo-Iweala as the best pick to lead the organisation but the Trump administration maintained its opposition to her appointment.
The WTO head is normally chosen by consensus, leaving the process at a standstill.
Observers suggested that South Korea was under pressure from the United States — a security ally that stations 28,500 troops in the country to defend it from the nuclear-armed North — to keep Yoo in the race.
At the same time, Seoul faced anger from African countries and others for not bowing out.
“Korea is stuck between a rock and a hard place,” one Western trade diplomat told AFP at the time.
The South’s decision to withdraw her candidacy comes two weeks after Joe Biden was sworn in as the new US president.
“South Korea will continue to make various contributions to rebuild and enhance the multilateral trade system,” the trade ministry statement said.
The WTO is widely seen as being in need of reform — even before the Covid-19 crisis hit, it had grappled with stalled trade talks and struggled to curb tensions between the United States and China.
The global trade body has also faced relentless attacks from Washington, which has crippled the WTO dispute settlement appeal system and threatened to leave the organisation altogether.
Final two
The WTO was destined to have its first woman director-general after the months-long consultations process whittled the candidates down to the final two.
Twice Nigeria’s finance minister and its first woman foreign minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, 66, trained as a development economist — she has degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, and Harvard.
She spent a quarter of a century at the World Bank, rising to be managing director and running for the top role in 2012, and is seen as a trailblazer in her home country.
Similarly Yoo, 53, is known as a glass-ceiling-breaker in the South’s still male-dominated society.
An English Literature graduate of the elite Seoul National University, she set aside her dreams of a literary career to become a trade ministry civil servant, later handling a number of free trade negotiations along the way.
February 5, 2021 in News, News Update 0
The World Trade Organization’s General Council Chair David Walker announced in last October Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had garnered the most support among WTO members to become the next global trade chief but her appointment was vetoed by the United States.
Korea will continue to work with responsibility for the restoration of the multilateral trading system.
NOI, as she is fondly called, will be the first female and first African to head the WTO if affirmed by its 164 members.
Myunghee1’s withdrawal does not mean @NOIweala immediately becomes the WTO next Director-General.
That appointment is taken in a formal decision by the WTO’s 164 members.
Since the U.S. is the only WTO member blocking Okonjo-Iweala’s candidacy, it remains to be seen whether the Biden administration will reverse the Trump administration’s veto and support her.
If there is no opposition from any WTO members, the chairman of the WTO general council, David Walker, can announce the resumption of the WTO suspended October general council meeting to consider the appointment of a new Director-General.
With agency reports
