The eventual emergence of Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was the work of providence. After the then US President, Donald Trump, rejected her choice by the WTO’s selection committee last year, her fate effectively hinged on the outcome of last November’s US presidential election. Had President Trump been re-elected, Dr Okonjo-Iweala would not have become the WTO’s new DG.
But providence intervened: Trump was defeated, and former Vice President Joe Biden became America’s next president. Once in office, President Biden immediately endorsed Okonjo-Iweala’s candidacy, lifting Trump’s block. On February 15, the WTO’s 164 members met and finally appointed Dr Okonjo-Iweala, by consensus, as its next Director-General, making her the first female and the first African DG in the 73-year history of the WTO and its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, GATT, established in 1947.
In her acceptance speech, Okonjo-Iweala acknowledged President Biden’s role in helping her make history. “Without the recent swift action by the Biden-Harris Administration to join the consensus of the membership on my candidacy, we would not be here today”, she said, adding: “I am grateful to the US for the prompt action and strong expression of support.”
Unsurprisingly, Dr Okonjo-Iweala, who assumed office as WTO’s DG on March 1, has received messages of congratulation from across the world. I, too, congratulate her on her historic achievement. But congratulations are also in order for another Nigerian, another African, who has left an indelible mark in the field of world trade governance. He is Dr Yonov Frederick Agah, an outstanding Deputy Director-General of the WTO since 2013, whose tenure will soon expire. This column pays tribute to these two great Nigerians and Africans!
Dr Okonjo-Iweala and Dr Agah have both done Nigeria and Africa proud and deserve our best wishes
Of course, kudos must go first to Dr Okonjo-Iweala, the history-maker. The WTO is, indeed, lucky to have her as its new DG. For a start, as we have seen, she has given the WTO a bigger profile. With her iconic personality, including her trademark Ankara dress and head-tie, she would, from a public image perspective, be an outstanding public face for the WTO. She will easily give the WTO name-recognition around the world. ButOkonjo-Iweala will also give the WTO parity of influence with the World Bank and the IMF as an equal part of the institutional tripod on which the world economy stands.
Read Also: Okonjo-Iweala’s WTO win is inspirational, but gender equality gaps persist at home
When the Bretton Woods institutions were created in 1945, they were meant to be three: World Bank, IMF and ITO – International Trade Organisation. But the ITO did not survive because the US Congress refused to ratify the treaty creating it. So, only the World Bank and the IMF survived as international organisations.
However, as the ITO suffered a still-birth, some countries came together and negotiated the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) as a trade treaty. Structurally, the GATT was not intended to be an international organisation like the World Bank and the IMF, although, with time, it began, informally, to operate, more or less, like one. But the GATT’s “birth defects”, as the renowned international trade lawyer Professor John Jackson called them, led to the creation of the WTO in 1994, giving it the wherewithal to operate as a bone fide international institution like the IMF and the World Bank.
But being relatively young, the WTO doesn’t have the same level of influence and esteem as the IMF and the World Bank. Dr Okonjo-Iweala will change that. She will ensure that the WTO’s voice is heard on matters relating to the global economy. Expect to see her standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the President of the World Bank and the Managing Director of the IMF whenever issues about the global economy are being discussed. Being an economist herself and being a former managing director of the World Bank, she would be listened to whenever she speaks for the WTO; in fact, the world media will actively seek her views.
Which brings us to why Dr Okonjo-Iweala was actually selected as the DG of the WTO. Some people have said that she got the job mainly because of her status as a former managing director of the World Bank. But that’s not true. In fact, if all she had to show was her former World Bank role, it would have worked against her. This is because, at the WTO, the World Bank is seen as too focused on ‘development’ issues and less on trade openness.
When I worked at the WTO in 2005, the World Bank was always viewed with suspicion, because the policies it recommended usually contradicted or undermined those of the WTO. The common saying, then, was that the WTO was not a ‘development’ institution.
So, Dr Okonjo-Iweala’s World Bank experience alone would not have helped her. Indeed, it was her ‘development-focused’ experience that the Trump administration cited as its main reason for rejecting her candidacy. In an interview with the Financial Times, Robert Lighthizer, the US Trade Representative (USTR) under former President Trump, said that Dr Okonjo-Iweala was not qualified for the WTO top job because she “has no experience in trade at all”, adding: “We need a person who actually knows the trade, not somebody from the World Bank who does development.”
But, despite Dr Okonjo-Iweala’s World Bank background and despite her not being a trade guru, most WTO members supported her candidacy for the DG job. Why? Well, they saw in her other attributes they liked and wanted. Throughout the selection process, the three things constantly said positively about Dr Okonjo-Iweala were her negotiation skills, her reformist mindset and her anti-corruption zeal.
These experiences were linked to the periods she was finance minister: first, under President Olusegun Obasanjo, when she negotiated Nigeria’s debt relief and undertook far-reaching reforms, and second, under President Goodluck Jonathan, when she was believed to have doggedly fought corruption. Dr Okonjo-Iweala herself captured these experiences in two internationally-acclaimed books –“Reforming the Unreformable” and “Fighting Corruption is Dangerous” – that have been read by influential people worldwide.
So, it was Dr Okonjo-Iweala’s Nigerian-derived experiences – negotiating and obtaining debt relief, “reforming the unreformable” and “fighting corruption” – that ultimately got her the WTO DG job, although her strong American network of contacts – she became a US citizen in 2019 – also strengthened her case with the Biden administration.
But now that she’s got the job, she will certainly need all these attributes to succeed. She has already set out a bold reform agenda, which confirms her reformist credentials. But she will need all her negotiation skills to manage tensions between the US and China. For without bringing the US and China together on most issues, she won’t achieve much. What’s more, she would also need the support of African countries, because they are obstacles to reforms at the WTO. Put simply, to succeed, she would need her African and American connections!
Which brings us to Dr Agah. He was President Buhari’s first choice for the DG job but was unceremoniously dropped for Dr Okonjo-Iweala. Harsh, but he lacked Okonjo-Iweala’s global profile, and wouldn’t have won. Yet, he has been a linchpin of the WTO for nearly fifteen years and chaired all the main WTO bodies.
In 2011, Dr Agah served as chair of the WTO’s General Counsel, responsible for organising the WTO’s 8th Ministerial Conference. The conference was predicted to fail, but Agah snatched victory from the jaw of defeat, and ensured its success. Two years later, in 2013, DG Roberto Azevêdo appointed him as one of his four Deputy Directors-General. Now, with Okonjo-Iweala, a Nigerian/African, as DG, Agah, a Nigerian/African, can’t continue as DDG.
Truth is, Dr Okonjo-Iweala and Dr Agah have both done Nigeria and Africa proud and deserve our best wishes. Indeed, Dr Agah, a career diplomat, deserves a new, top-ranking diplomatic job!
