Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala
America has thrown a wedge between Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s candidate for the director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and the post as it reportedly expressed its opposition to her emergence in spite of broad support for her.
www.beats-onit.com had on Wednesday reported that Iweala emerged victorious over her opponent, South Korea’s trade minister, Yoo Myung-hee, in the highly competitive race after polling 104 votes from 164 member countries.
The heads of delegation of the WTO met by 3:00 pm but failed to arrive at a consensus.
After the meeting, it was reported that the US refused to support the candidature of Okonjo-Iweala, thereby protracting the process.
Bloomberg had initially reported that the US was leaning towards Yoo Myung-hee, the South Korean candidate.
Iweala had received public support from many countries in Africa and the European Union.
Despite being an American citizen, sources revealed that the US does not consider Okonjo-Iweala as being committed enough to the interests of the world power at the flagship trade body.
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.
Reads the WTO website: “The WTO is run by its member governments. All major decisions are made by the membership as a whole.
“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.
The general council is the highest decision-making body of the WTO apart from the ministerial conference which meets every two years.
