A few days ago, the Nigerian-American economist, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was appointed to lead the 164 nation Geneva-based World Trade Organisation (WTO).
As the first woman and the first African to hold the post of Director General she now has the daunting task of encouraging its members to resolve their differences, ease post pandemic trade, and through reform, restore its relevance.
This will not be easy as for the last few years the WTO has been riven by dissent and on some issues, moribund. This is because its members have been reluctant to resolve key issues relating to subsidies, digital trade, state enterprises and even what constitutes a developing country. It has also suffered the neutering of its role in resolving trade disputes as the Trump Administration, in pursuit of trade advantage, hindered WTO judicial appointments and unilaterally imposed sanctions and punitive tariffs against those it saw as economic or political enemies.
