66-year-old Okonjo-Iweala was named director-general by representatives of the 164 countries that make up the World Trade Organization (WTO), which deals with the rules of trade between nations based on negotiated agreements.
During an online news conference, she said she was taking over at a time when the WTO “is facing so many challenges, and it's clear to me that deep and wide-ranging reforms are needed... it cannot be business as usual."
For Okonjo-Iweala, her first priority will be quickly addressing the economic and health consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, such as by lifting export restrictions on supplies and vaccines and encouraging the manufacture of vaccines in more countries.
Other tasks include reforming the organization’s dispute resolution process and finding ways for trade rules to deal with change such as digitalisation and e-commerce.
It is done! Thank you @WTO members for finalizing my election today and making history. In the 73 years of GATT and WTO, honored to be First Woman and First African to lead. But now the real work begins. Ready to tackle the challenges of WTO. Forget Business as usual! pic.twitter.com/apnAalHWf5
— Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (@NOIweala) February 15, 2021
Taking control of a shaken organisation
She takes over after four turbulent years in which U.S. President Donald Trump used new tariffs, or import taxes, against China and the European Union to push his America first trade agenda.
“It will not be easy because we also have the issue of lack of trust among members which has built up over time, not just among the U.S. and China and the U.S. and the EU ... but also between developing and developed country members, and we need to work through that,” she said.
She said that as the first woman and first African to hold the post, “I absolutely do feel an additional burden, I can't lie about that. Being the first woman and the first African means that one really has to perform.”
A woman of exceptional experience
The appointment, which takes effect on 1 March, came after U.S. President Joe Biden endorsed her candidacy, which had been blocked by Trump. Biden's move was a step toward his aim of supporting cooperative approaches to international problems after Trump's go-it-alone approach that launched multiple trade disputes.
Okonjo-Iweala has been Nigeria's finance minister and, briefly, foreign minister, and had a 25-year career at the World Bank as an advocate for economic growth and development in poorer countries.
She rose to the No. 2 position of managing director, where she oversaw $81 billion in development financing in Africa, South Asia, Europe and Central Asia.
In 2012 she made an unsuccessful bid for the top post with the backing of African and other developing countries, challenging the tradition that the World Bank is always headed by an American.
She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in regional economics and development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
South Korean trade minister Yoo Myung-hee had withdrawn her candidacy, leaving Okonjo-Iweala as the only choice. Her predecessor, Roberto Azevedo, stepped down 31 August a year before his term expired.
