The World Trade Organization will be led by a woman for the first time in its 25-year history after announced that the final choice to be its new general director will be between Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria y Yoo Myung-hee of the Republic of South Korea.
Both were the candidates who received the most support in the penultimate round of confidential consultations with each of the 164 WTO member countries, who were part of a panel made up of three diplomats who were tasked with this task.
In this phase were discarded candidates Mohammad Maziad Al-Tuwaijri (Saudi Arabia), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Nigeria) and Liam Fox (United Kingdom).
between the next few days 17 and October 29 The third and third will be held latest round of consultations, which will have the purpose of "ensure a consensus decision among members» on who will be, in this case, the next general director.
This will be the first time in the WTO's 25 years of operation that the institution will be headed by a woman, who will be given a four-year mandate.
«Our goal remains to encourage and facilitate consensus building among members and to help move from this final list of two candidates to a decision on the appointment. As this is the final round of the consultation process, it should bring us to the point where we can make a recommendation to the General Council on that decision."said WTO General Council Chairman and panel member David Walker.
The General Council is the highest decision-making body of the WTO, apart from its ministerial conference which meets every two years, although this year it could not take place due to the international health emergency.
Once the consultations are over, the panel will propose to the General Council the name of the next director general, a decision that must be taken by consensus, by 7 November. If that proves impossible, a vote will be held.
The WTO, which was created in 1995 out of the previous General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, has never had a female African director-general or leader.
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