The WTO’s General Council will hold a special virtual meeting on 15th February 2021 to consider the appointment of the next Director-General.
The appointment of a new Director-General of the WTO was necessitated by the resignation of the former Director-General Roberto Azevêdo on 31st August 2020, a year before the expiry of his mandate following his announcement in May 2020 that he would step down early.
The selection process to appoint a new Director-General was launched by General Council Chair David Walker of New Zealand. On 8th October 2020, Ambassador Walker announced that the two candidates who secured the broadest and deepest support from the membership and who have subsequently advanced to the final round of the selection process were Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria and Yoo Myung-hee of the Republic of Korea.
The result created a historic precedent for the WTO with the assurance that the 7th Director-General will become the first woman to lead the organization. These two candidates were chosen from a field of five that had advanced to the second round of consultations.
At a Heads of Delegation meeting on 28th October 2020, the General Council Chair, David Walker of New Zealand, and his two co-facilitators announced that based on their consultations with all delegations, the candidate best poised to attain consensus and become the 7th Director-General was Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria. Amb. Walker stressed that this was the assessment of the “troika” of facilitators and that a final decision had to be taken by the members at a General Council meeting, which he had scheduled for November 9, 2020.
However, on 6th November 2020, Amb. Walker announced that the meeting scheduled for November 9, 2020, would be postponed until further notice, during which time he would continue undertaking consultations with delegations.
The appointment process of the 7th Director-General of the WTO formally commenced on 8th June 2020 with nominations accepted from that date until 8th July 2020.
At the end of the nomination period, eight candidates were nominated by their respective governments. From 15th to 17th July 2020, all of the candidates met with WTO members at a special General Council meeting, at which they had the opportunity to present their views and take questions from the membership.
The second phase of the process in which the candidates “make themselves known to members” ended on 7th September last year. From 7th to 16th September 2020, Ambassador Walker, together with the Chair of the Dispute Settlement Body, Dacio Castillo of Honduras, and the Chair of the Trade Policy Review Body, Harald Aspelund of Iceland, consulted with all WTO members to assess their preferences and seek to determine which candidate is best placed to attract consensus support.
At a Heads of Delegation meeting on September 18, 2020, Amb. Walker and his two co-facilitators in the selection process disclosed the five candidates who had secured the broadest and deepest support from the WTO membership in the first round of consultations and who should consequently advance to the next stage of the selection process.
The second round of consultations took place from 24th September to 6th October and on 8th October 2020, Amb. Walker and his co-facilitators disclosed the outcome of these consultations and the two candidates who advanced to the third and final round of consultations, which will determine the successor to Roberto Azevêdo.
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