Tag: Okonjo Iweala

The WTO head urged vaccine makers to increase technology transfer to bring in new manufacturing capacity and to be transparent on contracts and pricing. Pfizer and BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca are among those producing the shots.

“A strong WTO is vital if we are to recover fully and rapidly from the devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

All members of the WTO's top decision-making body, the General Council, agreed on her appointment in a virtual meeting which had just one agenda item, they said. The WTO subsequently confirmed the choice.

A statement from Korea’s trade ministry noted that Yoo decided to quit the race after discussions with the U.S. and other major nations, and took various issues into account, including the need to revitalize the multilateral organization.

Key WTO ambassadors led by New Zealand’s Ambassador David Walker had proposed Okonjo-Iweala, the former Nigerian finance minister, as the best candidate for the job but the United States under outgoing President Donald Trump had opposed her emergence as WTO director general. The Trump presidency instead preferred South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee for the job.

during the conference were issues bordering on debt relief for Africa, EU-African relations and recharge of the Lake Chad, which has currently shrunk to less than one-third of its usual size, and throwing about 130 million people who depend on the Lake into dire straits

With the victory, the former minister becomes the first African and the first woman to lead the organisation in its 25 years history.

The WTO’s Ambassador Walker-led General Council, the overall organ responsible for picking the organisation’s next DG, would officially announce the choice of Nigeria’s former Finance Minister, Dr Okonjo-Iweala today, October 27.

Iweala’s qualities and experience in managing multilateral issues, in trade facilitation and negotiation as well as brokering deals and agreements with high political stakes, put her in good standing.

The office of WTO Director-General will be vacated in August and, as usual, some of the world’s heavyweight finance and trade experts are contending for the position.

Other candidates aside Okonjo-Iweala are Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh (Egypt), Amina Mohamed (Kenya), Jesús Kuri (Mexico), Tudor Ulianovschi (Moldova), Yoo Myung-hee (Korea), Mohammad Al-Tuwaijri (Saudi Arabia), and Liam Fox (UK).

The Nigerian Government has insisted that Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s nomination for the office of the Director-General of World Trade Organisation did...