WTO chief Okonjo-Iweala reinstated for second term as trade wars loom

By Emma Farge

World Trade Organization chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was reappointed for a second term at a special meeting on Friday, the trade watchdog said, meaning her tenure will coincide with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's second administration.

Analysts expect the road ahead for the three-decade-old WTO will be challenging, likely characterised by trade wars with Trump, who returns to the White House on Jan. 20, threatening hefty tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada and China.

Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance minister who made history in 2021 by becoming the WTO's first female and first African director-general, announced in September that she would run again, aiming to complete "unfinished business".

No other candidates ran against her and all of the WTO's 166 members agreed by consensus to a proposal to reappoint her.

"We have a full agenda to deliver...and we fully intend to get to work immediately, no stopping, to try and deliver on these results," Okonjo-Iweala told journalists, citing WTO reforms and fishing negotiations as among her priorities.

Trade sources said the meeting created a means of fast-tracking her appointment process to avoid any risk of it being blocked by Trump, whose teams and allies have criticised both Okonjo-Iweala and the WTO in the past.

In 2020, his administration gave its support to a rival candidate and sought to block her first term. She secured U.S. backing only when President Joe Biden succeeded Trump in the White House in January 2021.

WTO General Council Chair and Norwegian Ambassador Petter Ølberg said the process had been fair and transparent. "We feel that we now are really fit for the next four years," he said.

MOUNTING U.S.-CHINA TENSIONS

Even in the Biden era, WTO negotiations have made limited progress although a handful of deals were struck in Geneva in 2022. Efforts to revamp the WTO's dispute settlement system, brought to its knees under Trump due to U.S. opposition to judge appointments, have so far failed to deliver ahead of an end-December deadline.

Many predict the WTO will be a theatre where mounting trade tensions between the U.S. and China will play out, with Trump's new trade team expected to challenge Beijing's official developing country status at the WTO that critics say endows it with unfair advantages.

China's mission sent a message on X congratulating Okonjo-Iweala and saying it was looking forward to working with her and other members "to safeguard the multilateral trading system".

Okonjo-Iweala said she was looking forward to working with the incoming Trump administration and that she saw common ground between them on areas like intellectual property rights. "I think we should come into things with a very constructive and creative approach to trying to deal with the issues that will face the world trading system," she said.

She declined to comment on Trump's tariff plans, calling it premature.

Asked to respond to remarks by Trump's former U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer that she was "China's ally in Geneva", she said: "The WTO has 166 members and I hope they all believe I'm their ally."