Addressing the WTO General Council immediately after taking office on March 1, 2021, Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala called on members to “do things differently” to achieve reforms necessary to keep the WTO relevant, starting with swift action to curb harmful fisheries subsidies and to help scale up COVID-19 vaccine production and distribution.
The new head of the WTO noted that high expectations for her tenure can only be met if members are willing to compromise and reach agreements.
DG Okonjo-Iweala suggested that prospects for a successful Twelfth Ministerial Conference would be enhanced if members target a manageable number of deliverables for this year, and set up longer work programs to address issues that cannot realistically be resolved within that timeframe.
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala expressed her gratitude to the four DDGs Messrs. Yonov Agah, Mr. Karl Bruner, Mr. Alan Wolff, and Mr. Yi Xiaozhun for ably holding the fort since September 2020. She also thanked the management and staff of the Secretariat for their warm welcome, enthusiasm, and desire to see things done differently.
“I remain honored and humbled by the confidence Members have placed in me. I will bring all my knowledge, passion, experience, and persistence to the task at hand, reforming the organization and achieving results.
“I am conscious that expectations are high and shall do my utmost to move us forward. However, this is a membership-driven organization so I cannot do it without you, I cannot do it without the cooperation of staff and management. What we are involved in is a tripartite partnership. Each partner has to play their part if we are to get results. High expectations of my leadership also mean that I have high expectations of you to help me deliver.
“I have said it. It cannot be business as usual. We have to change our approach from debate and rounds of questions to delivering results. Excellences, many of you put in long hours and a great deal of effort to do good work much of which goes unnoticed. There are excellent people in the capitals doing good work. We have talented staff in the Secretariat. But the world is no longer cognizant of this, does not recognize the effort because we are not delivering results at the pace required by our fast-changing environment.
“Last week at the TNC, several Ambassadors said that You Excellences talk past each other. You don’t talk to each other. This approach has to change. We have to be more accountable to the people we came here to serve — the ordinary women and men, our children who hope that our work here to support the MTS, will result in meaningful change in their lives, will improve their standard of living, and create decent jobs for those who seek work”.
Touching on the COVID-19, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala stated that the WTO has received calls for a TRIPS waiver from a growing number of developing countries and the dialogue is intensifying. He indicated that whilst this is happening, there is the need to focus on the immediate needs of dozens of poor countries that have yet to vaccinate a single person.
“People are dying in poor countries. We just had our first COVAX shipment to Ghana last week and others will follow but it will not be enough. There is serious supply scarcity and some countries are outbidding COVAX and diverting supplies. The world has a normal capacity of production of 3.5billion doses of vaccines and we now seek to manufacture 10billion doses”.
“This is just very difficult, so we must focus on working with companies to open up and license more viable manufacturing sites now in emerging markets and developing countries. We must get them to work with us on know-how and technology transfer now. There will soon be a world manufacturing convention where we can seek to build this partnership. I also hope we can initiate a dialogue and information exchange between us and representatives of manufacturers associations from developing and developed countries”.
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