WTO Postpones Meeting to Pick New WTO DG

 

The World Trade Organisation has postponed a meeting slated for 9 November 2020 where members are expected to pick a new Director-General after the United States blocked the favoured candidate, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

The WTO earlier announced that the meeting would hold next week. But a communication seen by AFP showed that the meeting has been postponed indefinitely.

“It has come to my attention that for reasons including the health situation and current events, delegations will not be in a position to take a formal decision on 9 November,” the head of the selection committee told member states.

“I am therefore postponing this meeting until further notice during which period I will continue to undertake consultations with delegations,” he added.

Platform Blog had reported that the United States opposed Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the consensus candidate to lead the WTO.

The US said it is supporting South Korean trade minister, Yoo Myung-hee, to become the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation because she is a “trade expert”.

But China, the European Union, African Union and WTO’s ambassadors backed Okonjo-Iweala for the position.

Platform Blog can automatically say WTO is strategically waiting for the outcome of US election to make things easy for them coupled with other reasons for the postponement of the scheduled meeting. 

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