WTO: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala gets European Union support

The European Union has declared support for Nigeria’s Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the South Korean candidate Yoo Myung-hee as the duo compete to land the top role as Director-General of the World Trade Organisation.

This comes after a source told Bloomberg the preferred candidate the EU will be rooting for as the date to select a leader draws near.

Nairametrics had reported last week that the remaining five candidates, who are from the initial pool of eight candidates that were shortlisted, will be further pruned down to just two candidates after the second round of elimination.

The five remaining candidates include Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Nigeria), Liam Fox (UK), Amina Chawahir Mohamed Jibril (Kenya), Yoo Myung-hee (South Korea), and Mohammad Maziad Al-Tuwaijri ( Saudi Arabia).

Nairametrics had earlier reported that three candidates who were running for the WTO top job had fallen out of the race after the first round of the elimination process thereby leaving only five candidates out of the initial eight.

EU member-country envoys agreed on Monday in Brussels to endorse Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s former finance minister, and Yoo Myung-hee, South Korea’s trade chief, in their bids to become WTO director-general, according to an official familiar with the matter.

2 finalists would be announced on October 6th and the new Director-General would be announced on the 7th of November.

Okonjo-Iweala and the 4 other candidates will present themselves to the members of the global trade body for voting in the hopes of securing the highest number of votes to succeed the current DG, Mr. Roberto Azevêdo.