Nigeria\u2019s candidate to head the World Trade Organization (WTO) said she feels \u201cstrong support\u201d from Africa and expects African leaders to unite behind one candidate as sources following the race said she is gaining broader backing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former finance and foreign minister who has more than 25 years experience at the World Bank, is seeking to replace Brazil\u2019s Roberto Azevedo who announced last month he would step down on Aug. 31, in a surprise move at a critical juncture for the body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Africa has struggled in the past to unite behind one candidate and the Geneva-based watchdog has never been led by someone from the continent before, nor by a woman, and there is broad feeling it is Africa\u2019s turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI cannot presume for any group but I can tell you that I feel strong support from the region,\u201d she told Reuters late on Monday, saying she was having \u201cvery constructive conversations\u201d among the 164 members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One delegate described her as \u201cdefinitely the favourite\u201d, especially since European Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan dropped out, and likely to be acceptable to China and the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Egypt\u2019s Hamid Mamdouh, a former WTO official, is also a candidate and was endorsed by the African Union months ago, before Okonjo-Iweala\u2019s candidacy was announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new head\u2019s in-tray includes overseeing reforms, clinching a long-overdue multilateral trade deal, coping with a post-COVID recession as well as growing protectionism and U.S.-China trade tensions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe problems are very deep and challenging but they are not insoluble,\u201d she said, stressing the need for reform including of the body\u2019s top court which is a priority for Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Critics say she does not have enough direct trade experience but she says being an outsider is an advantage. Backers laud her negotiating skills, including a deal to cancel billions of dollars of Nigerian debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOver my long career I\u2019ve managed to build relationships and platforms at levels high enough to be able to dialogue with the right people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nominations are open until July 8 at the WTO, which traditionally chooses a chief by consensus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Source: Barristerng<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nigeria\u2019s candidate to head the World Trade Organization (WTO) said she feels \u201cstrong support\u201d from Africa and expects African leaders to unite behind one candidate as sources following the race said she is gaining broader backing. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former finance and foreign minister who has more than 25 years experience at the World Bank, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-naija-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Okonjo-Iweala.jpg?fit=450%2C450&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}