Former Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Yoo Myung-hee of South Korea to face-off for the new Director General of World Trade Organization (WTO).
GENEVA — The World Trade Organization announced Thursday that South Korea’s trade minister and a Harvard-trained former Nigerian finance minister have qualified as the two finalists to become the next director-general, ensuring a woman in the top job for the first time.
For the first time in its 25-year history, the World Trade Organization will be led by a woman.
The field of candidates vying to become the next director-general of the WTO later this year has been reduced to Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee, the Geneva-based body said in a statement on Thursday.
One of them will replace Roberto Azevedo, who stepped down a year earlier than planned in August after the WTO was caught in the middle of an escalating trade fight between the United States and China.
Happy to be in the final round of the @WTO director general] campaign,” Dr Ngozi Iweala
tweeted on Thursday. “Thanks, WTO members for your continued support of my candidacy.”
Okonjo-Iweala will face off against Yoo, who is the first woman to serve as South Korea’s trade minister.
“Deeply grateful and honored to be selected for the final round in the selection process of the next @WTO Director General!” Yoo said on Twitter after the final candidates were announced