The United States (US) has suggested that the process to
find a new director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) needs to be
reopened, BBC is reporting.
Robert Lighthizer, US trade representative, during an
interview on Wednesday, said the WTO needs “someone with real experience in
trade, not someone from the World Bank or a development person.”
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Nigerian minister of finance and
former managing director (MD) of the World Bank, had got the support of 110 out
of 164 member countries but the US opposed her candidacy.
The trade organisation operates based on consensus, that is,
if one country opposes, a final decision cannot be made.
Iweala and Yoo Myung Hee, South Korea’s trade minister, are
the final candidates for the top job at the WTO following the resignation of
Roberto Azevêdo in May.
Following the lack of a consensus, the WTO had postponed the
general council meeting to consider the appointment of a new DG till further
notice.
Lightizer confirmed that there is no way the Trump
administration will be persuaded to back Iweala in its remaining weeks in
office.
He said the WTO is “massively in need of reform”, especially
its dispute-resolving appellate body, which according to him, has evolved into
a body creating a common law of trade, “taking away benefits” that members had
negotiated for ” and putting restraint on things that had been conceded”.
The appellate body of the WTO has been rendered inactive by
Donald Trump’s administration vetoing the appointment of new judges.
“I think there’s a consensus developing at the WTO that we
need the appellate body reform,” Lightizer said.
“We need to start negotiating again, we need to start making
headway. So I’m glad you brought up the WTO, it’s been clearly a focus for us
and to us its an organisation that started off as a good idea and basically
isn’t functioning very well, but I think that can be sorted out also.”
James Bacchus, a former chairman of the WTO appellate body,
as well as a former US trade negotiator, said: “Effective multilateral
cooperation to lower barriers to trade is urgently needed to help jumpstart the
global economy and recover from the pandemic.”
“That requires creative leadership from an honest broker in
the role of director-general.”
Despite speculations that the Joe Biden administration might
have a different stance on Iweala’s appointment, the US president- elect has
not confirmed his preference.
“We need to be aligned with the other democracies.. so that
we can set the rules of the road instead of having China and others dictate
outcomes, ” Biden had recently said on trade.
Simon Lester, a WTO expert at the Cato Institute in Washington,
said that it would be a good idea if the Biden administration can trade off
support for Iweala for political capital on other reforms.
According to Lester, this would be the fastest way to
appoint a new WTO DG, because “opening up the selection process could be messy
and complicated, and would lead to delays”.
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