Trade is vital to help recovery from covid-induced recession: Okonjo-Iweala

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala says trade will be important to help the global recovery from the pandemic induced recession.

Okonjo-Iweala, who is one of eight candidates (and one of three women) in the fray for the post of WTO director general. Ahead of the end of the second phase of the selection process on 7 September, Okonjo-Iweala also says that the WTO’s consensus-driven approach has worked in the past but now, a lack of trust among members seems to be the stumbling block. She speaks about her priorities making WTO more visible in an interview.

On her confidence on getting the job, Okonji-Iweala said she has constructive conversations all around. She also said that the WTO was facing a lot of challenges and the members are looking for people capable of taking on those challenges and helping members to solve them.

She further continued saying she had conversations with the Indian ambassador to the WTO and the minister of trade which was constructive. While stating that India is a powerhouse in the WTO and the world, she said it champions the causes of developing countries and is also active in the policy space for developing countries, especially the least developed countries, enabling them special and differential treatment in order for them to develop. India is a frequent user of the dispute settlement mechanism of the WTO. It is active in the ongoing fisheries negotiations as well. So for that reason it’s very important to reckon with India and I have to say I have been very pleased with the constructive conversations that I have had.

Okonji-Iweala also spoke on the disagreements between China and the US, “People often talk of the difficult relations between the US and China or different views among members. I take a slightly different approach. And I know that these are different views, the world is getting more polarised in some senses. But there are also common views, common things that these countries are doing in common and I think the appropriate way to look at it is what are those things that you can build on. If you focus on WTO issues, there are some areas where members have seemingly difficult disagreements but they also work together. Take for example fisheries subsidies’ negotiations that are going on now. It is a multilateral negotiation, India is there. China is there. The US is there. So I think it is a good beginning to think that it can all come together around one table to discuss the sustainability of our oceans as well as at the same time help small scale fisheries”.