Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador plans to nominate Jesús Seade Kuri, the economist who led trade talks with the United States and Canada, as director-general of the World Trade Organization, according to a person familiar with the plan.
The announcement could come as early as Monday, according to the person who asked not to be identified because the information is not yet public. Seade is currently the undersecretary of foreign affairs for North America and had previously taught at universities in Hong Kong and China. The announcement was reported by the newspaper El Universal.
Mexico's Foreign Ministry did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Seade joined López Obrador’s transition team in 2018 and worked with negotiators from then-President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration to reach an initial deal on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement, known as the USMCA. Last year, he negotiated new changes with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to win Democratic support for passage in Congress. The deal takes effect July 1.
Outgoing WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo of Brazil announced in May that he planned to step down in August, before his term ends in 2021. That sets up a potentially political search for a successor at an organization caught in the middle of an economic struggle between the U.S. and China and the dawn of a global recession.
Source: Bloomberg
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