DG Of WTO: What FG Said As United States Rejects Okonjo-Iweala WTO Chief—-The opposing stand of the US on Nigeria’s candidate, Okonjo-Iweala occupying WTO top position is not lost the Nigerian Government, hence they’ve revealed that diplomatic actions to head it off are in progress.
The Ministry of Trade and Investment has yesterday said that the government was taking steps to prevent USA’s opposition from snowballing into adverse swing in the support base for the Nigeria’s nominee.
A top trade ministry source said, “the Ministry was aware of USA’s position long before now and we are not folding our hands”
“We are confident that most of the countries that have expressed support would not back out under pressure from USA”, declining to give details on the steps.
Okonjo-Iweala emerged winner of the highly competitive race, polling 104 endorsements out of 164 member countries at the final stage of the race earlier this week.
The process of picking WTO’s DG/ Chief Executive is based on consensus building where the voting members are expected to adopt any candidate that commands acceptance of the majority or the council resort to outright voting with the highest number of votes deciding who gets the job.
However, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, Dennis Shea, said during a meeting of WTO delegates in Geneva yesterday, that his country would not support a consensus decision to appoint Okonjo-Iweala, in favour of Myung-hee.
