Nigeria’s candidate for the position of Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, wednesday assured member-countries that if given the job, she will rejuvenate WTO.
Okonjo-Iweala, who spoke during a media briefing after making a presentation to the General Council of the WTO, however, added that she would ensure that her plans for the Geneva-based institute are achieved by proactively working with member countries.
“The WTO DG has no direct decision-making authority. But the WTO DG can work to make things move along with influence and that influence can be proactive.
“And that is the kind of DG that I intend to be if I am selected; to proactively work with members, to deliver outcomes, starting with the next ministerial, to show that the WTO is back and that the WTO is rejuvenated. So, I intend to be a proactively supportive DG,” she said.
The former Managing Director (Operations) of the World Bank added: “The organisation has never had a woman or an African as DG, but my insistence is that choosing a DG for WTO should be on merit.
“The best person to lead the institution should be chosen. Now I will say to them, if that person happens to be a woman, let it be, if she happens to be an African, so be it,” she said.
While noting that micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs) have been bruised by the COVID-19, she stressed the need for discussions on how to integrate such businesses in the multilateral trading system, which is very important.
According to her, “One crucial thing arising from COVID-19 and the impact it has had on economic growth and the predicted contraction of the world economy and economies around the world is that MSMEs have been badly affected. So, they need liquidity.
“So, we need to make sure that for them to survive, they should have adequate liquidity to keep their businesses going. My worry is that there have been countries globally who have been able to make this liquidity available to their MSMEs and there are others, like many developing countries and least developed countries who have not.
“And, one of my roles as African Union envoy, with my other five colleagues, has been to see how we can facilitate and encourage additional resources from outside and inside to these MSMEs, so that they can regain their position and be able to stand, not only to keep jobs but to thrive in the future and create more jobs.
“So, I am very keen. I think it is a very important sector and the WTO would work hard to make sure such types of enterprises are supported.”
Okonjo-Iweala, who is Nigeria’s two-term former Minister of Finance, faulted the insinuation that she doesn’t have experience in trade negotiations, saying: “That is a totally wrong notion.”
She explained: “I have paid respect to my competitors because that is my nature. I do not criticise other people. I respect them. The competitors who are saying that I am not a trade expert are wrong. I am a development economist and you cannot do that without looking at trade, which is an essential part of development.
“So, I have been doing it. My whole career at the World Bank, I was working on trade policy reform in middle and low-income countries at the bank. As finance minister, the customs service in my country reported to me. And that is all about trade facilitation.”
Responding to a question on what she would be saying to the United States President Donald Trump or the US president-elect to convince the country not to exit the WTO, Okonjo-Iweala, said: “I would say to the president that the WTO delivered for all countries,
including the United States, in the past. It is because of the multilateral rules-based trading system that we have had prosperity and the lifting of millions out of poverty and it has brought about shared prosperity and we could do it again.
“I would say to him, where the trading system has failed, we need to fix it so that it can be more inclusive and can benefit more people.
“And that truly, it’s not the time now to leave the WTO that matters. We need an institution that can promote a rules-based system. I would also say to him – remember the trade wars of the past, we don’t want that. We want peace, security and stability.
“That is why the WTO is needed with its ability to arbitrate disputes among members. So, don’t leave now, let’s try to fix what needs fixing and if we didn’t have the WTO, we would have to invent it.”