By Our Correspondent
Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was slated to be the new Director-General of the World Trade Organization, WTO. She would be the first woman and the first African to head the organization, but there was an unexpected glitch in the process a few hours ago. In a last ditch move, the United States representative at the World Trade Organization, at the prompting of Donald Trump took to the floor to insist that South Korea’s candidate, Yoo Myung-hee, remains a contender, and that Washington would not recognize Okonjo-Iweala as the consensus candidate for appointment as the director-general, Reuters report.
In response the General counsel has postponed the announcement of the new director-general until a further meeting scheduled for November 9 after the US presidential election, as recommended by a panel of the WTO.
Okonjo-Iweala had reportedly won the popular vote by a wide margin, with the expectation of an announcement after a WTO meeting in Geneva.
Okonjo-Iweala had received overwhelming support from countries in Africa and the European Union, including China, Sources say.
Unlike the World Bank where the US has a larger voting power than other countries, the WTO is run differently, by the consensus of every member country.
“The WTO is run by its member governments. All major decisions are made by the membership as a whole,” the WTO website reads.
“In this respect, the WTO is different from some other international organizations such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
“Where consensus is not possible, the WTO agreement allows for voting — a vote being won with a majority of the votes cast and on the basis of ‘one country, one vote’.”
The general council of the WTO will meet again to attempt a consensus or recourse to the vote.