The current Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Robert Azevedo would step down from his position on August 31, 2020. He would leave his position one year before his second four-year term. Although it’s true that decisions at the WTO are taken by member states through either a Ministerial Conference or through the General Council and thus, the DG does not have much role in policy making. However, the managerial and advisory roles of the DG are important in connecting and coordinating member countries and maintain continuity in the activities of the WTO. It’s pertinent because world trade is standing right now at a crossroad. There have been trade wars, rising protectionism, deep recession because of Covid-19 pandemic and de-globalisation and these challenges must be dealt efficiently by the new chief of the WTO. The new chief must bring renewed trust in the organisation which was established as a genuine multilateral organisation to regulate global trade in a non-discriminatory manner. It was supposed to protect rights of not only powerful countries but also weaker countries. For the same reason, a robust dispute settlement mechanism was also envisaged though it’s being questioned by the US in December 2019. Actually, the US has threatened to leave the WTO and demanded that China must be removed from the category of developing countries.

The selection of the new chief should be done by looking at the profiles of the candidates and their native countries. Actually, both the factors are important but the native country’s profile and location in global political and economic structure is going to be more important. Right now there are eight candidates who are competing for the position and they are from Mexico, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, Moldova, Saudi Arabia, Britain and South Korea. Three of them are women. The first candidate, Jesus Seade from Mexico has long association with the WTO related activities and currently senior trade official in Mexican government. However, his 73 year age and being a candidate from a South American country weakens his claim. Even though there is no formal regional rotation conditions to select the DG, his predecessor came from Brazil and it would certainly weaken his case.

The second candidate is Hamid Mamdouh from Egypt. He appears to be a strong contender as there has not been a DG so far from Africa and his candidacy is also being endorsed officially by the African Union. However, critiques say that he does not have enough political experience and that may go against his candidature. The third candidate is Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from Nigeria who is an economist and has been Foreign and Finance Minister of Nigeria. If it was decided to give this time chance to Africa, she could be a strong candidate. However, as mentioned earlier the African Union has not given her endorsement. The fourth candidate is Amina Mohamed from Kenya. She is right now sport and culture minister in Kenya. Flip side of her candidature is that she has expressed sympathy towards the US criticism of the WTO but it might not go well with her candidature. Three candidates from Africa would also lead to mutual weakening.
The fifth candidate is Tudor Ulianovschi from Moldova but at the age of 37 he does not have enough experience of public service to consider him as a serious candidate. The sixth candidate is Mohammad Al-Tuwaijri from Saudi Arabia. He has limited experience in global trade and Qatar is determined to block his candidature. Thus his candidature may not have enough traction. The seventh candidate is Liam Fox from Britain. He is a Member of British Parliament but his active support and participation in Britain’s exist from the European Union do not support his case. The eighth candidate is Yoo Myung-hee from South Korea. She is right now trade minister in South Korea and has long experience of trade negotiations of South Korea with other countries including the US. Yoo Myung-hee appears to have no drawbacks and her candidature appears to have increasingly more tractions with time.

Actually Yoo Myung-hee’s candidature looks stronger if it’s evaluated in light of South Korea’s location and standing in the global trade. Actually, in the last election of the DG in 2013, the divide was between the developing and developed countries and Robert Azevedo became successful as he was considered to be a candidate of developing countries. This time, it would be better to opt for a candidate who can bridge gap between the developing and developed countries. South Korea seamlessly connects developing and developed country and even though it’s formally part of the developed countries, it has strong connects with the developing world. Furthermore, when the US-China are pulling global trade in two different directions or intend to create two separate trade networks, South Korea could be ideal candidate to reconnect them. South Korea is also one of the few countries which are heavily dependent of the global trade. Unlike the US, China, and Europe, domestic market and resources of South Korea are very limited. Thus, a South Korean DG would definitely work harder to remove political, economic, technical and other hindrances of global trade as it is an existential issue for South Korea. Unlike current DG Roberto Azevedo, who annoyed the US President Donald Trump from the very beginning because he expressed his worry over US election rhetoric in 2016, South Korean candidate Yoo Myung-hee has been more subtle and non-political in her conducts. Last but not the least is the fact that till now all the DG has been selected by consensus and without voting and to have a consensus on the name of Yoo Myung-hee of South Korea would be easiest.

At present world trade has been facing, apart from numerous other challenges, the most important issue of trust deficit and Yoo Myung-hee’s claim to make WTO ‘relevant, resilient and responsive’ to rebuild trust in the body could and should be given a chance.

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Views expressed above are the author's own.

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