World Trade Organisation (WTO) members have selected two final candidates, Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and South Korea’s Yoo Myung-Hee, to advance to the final round in the race to lead the Geneva-based trade body, Bloomberg reports.
By advancing two women to the final round of the selection process, the WTO will likely have the first female Director-General in its 25-year history.
Okonjo-Iweala served two stints as Nigeria’s finance minister and one term as foreign affairs minister. She has experience working at international governance bodies as a former managing director of the World Bank and as a chairman at the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation.
Yoo is South Korea’s trade minister. During her 25-year career in government, she has helped expand her country’s trade network through bilateral accords with the U.S., China and the U.K.
WTO General Council Chairman, David Walker plans to formally announce the results to the institution’s delegates ton Thursday in Geneva.
The report noted that United Kingdom’s Liam Fox; Kenya’s Amina Chawahir Mohamed Jibril and Saudi Arabia’s Mohammad Maziad Al-Tuwaijri did not secure enough support in the second round of consultations.
The third and final phase of the consultation process will begin later this month and run until November 6, after which the WTO will endeavour to name a consensus winner of the race.
