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World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is seeking a second term as the rule-setting body for international commerce faces rising protectionism from some of its founding members.
She aims to continue in the top position at the Geneva-based WTO when her current term expires Aug. 31, a spokesperson said Monday. Okonjo-Iweala, who turned 70 this year, took office in March 2021 as the first woman to hold the position.
A group of African nations had requested she stay in the job and she accepted, “taking into account the overwhelming and broad-based support expressed by members” at a general council meeting in July, according to the emailed statement from WTO spokesman Ismaila Dieng.
The appointment process is done by consensus of the WTO’s 166 members, typically starting nine months before the expiry of the current term.
Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance minister, has had mixed support from the past two US executives — both of which have pushed for reform at the WTO.
In the last presidential election year of 2020, the Trump administration supported a different candidate — then-South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee to be WTO director-general, slowing the selection process. In early 2021, a newly elected Biden White House backed Okonjo-Iweala and she got the job.
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