WTO IN TIGHT FIX OVER CHOICE OF ITS DIRECTOR-GENERAL

Faced with a veto from the United States, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has two unpalatable options for selecting its next leader - override its biggest paymaster with a vote or hope for a change of US president and wait until he takes charge, Philip Blenkinsop and Andrea Shalal reported for Reuters.

With just days to go before the US election, President Donald Trump’s administration struck another blow to the global trade watchdog by rejecting Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the woman proposed by a nomination “troika” to be the WTO’s next director-general who also happens to be a US citizen.

In a short statement, the office of the US Trade Representative said it supported a rival candidate, South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee, as someone with hands-on experience in international trade.

One Geneva-based diplomat said Washington changed direction “in a chaotic” way in the very last throes of the leadership race to support Yoo, blocking the process. “It seems like they were improvising,” the diplomat said. Okonjo-Iweala’s spokeswoman Molly Toomey rejected any suggestion that the former Nigerian finance minister was not qualified for the job: “Needless to say, WTO members wouldn’t have selected a DG who is missing any skills or qualifications.”