Okonjo-Iweala pitches against South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee for WTO job
The path for the World Trade Organisation’s Director-General, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is becoming clearer as at least 27 member countries of the European Union (EU) have thrown their weight behind the former Minister of Finance for the WTO job.
Okonjo-Iweala and South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee are vying for the exalted WTO job which became open in August following the resignation of a Brazilian diplomat, Roberto Avezedo.
According to report, countries that had declared their support for the ex-World Bank managing director ahead of the third and final stage of the selection process are the EU member states including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden.
Read also, Okonjo-Iweala begs US not to leave WTO
The latest support brought the number of countries that had officially declared their support for Okonjo-Iweala’s candidacy to 106 out of the 164 states of WTO.
The African Union had earlier declared its support for the Nigerian.