World Trade Organization (WTO) members have selected two final candidates — Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee — to advance to the final round in the race to lead the Geneva-based trade body, according to Bloomberg.
Although, no official announcement has been made on WTO website, Bloomberg reports that people already familiar with the matter are hinting on it
By advancing two women to the final round of the selection process, the WTO will likely have the first female director general in its 25-year history.
David Walker, General Council Chairman, WTO plans to formally announce the results to the institution’s delegates on Thursday morning in Geneva.
“They’re both very well qualified, it’s going to be a fight,” said William Reinsch, a trade official in the Clinton administration and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The top challenge will be “restoring the organization to full strength and viability, and restoring its reputation. “You need members to have confidence that the WTO is capable of solving problems. I think right now that confidence is eroded.”
Okonjo-Iweala served two stints as Nigeria’s finance minister and one term as foreign affairs minister. She has experience working at international international governance bodies as a former managing director of the World Bank and as a chairman at the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization.
Yoo is South Korea’s trade minister. During her 25-year career in government, she has helped expand her country’s trade network through bilateral accords with the U.S., China and the U.K.
