Candidates who want to run for the Director General position of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have a period of one month, until November 8, 2024, to submit their applications for the much-coveted role.

WTO Spokesperson, Ismaila Dieng, confirmed on October 4 that Peter Ølberg, Chair of the General Council, informed members that he had "detected convergence to initiate the appointment process for the next Director-General earlier than anticipated.”

The General Council is the WTO's highest-level decision-making body in Geneva, Switzerland, meeting regularly to carry out the functions of the WTO.

"In light of this, the appointment process is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, October 8, 2024. Until that date, Mr. Ølberg will remain available for consultations with WTO members,” Dieng said, adding that the process will be conducted in accordance with the Procedures for the Appointment of Directors-General.

The process, he added, will be guided, as noted in the Guidelines, "by the best interests of the organization, respect for the dignity of all candidates and the nominating members, and full transparency and inclusiveness at each stage".

Members will have one month from the commencement of the appointment process to submit nominations for candidates. All nominations must be received by November 8, 2024. Candidates will then have three months, until February 8, 2025, to engage with members and present their qualifications.

In the running, the current Director General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, will seek a second term at the WTO, a global club of 166 countries that seeks to support free, fair, and open trade.

The current director general has already expressed interest and informed the General Council chair as per the rules of her interest to run for a second term. No other candidate has signaled their interest yet to run for the position.

Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance minister and World Bank Managing Director, made history by becoming the first woman and African to lead the organisation when members appointed her in March 2021 in a race that was tight.

In 2021, Okonjo-Iweala outcompeted all African candidates – Egypt’s Abdel Hamid Mamdouh and Kenya’s Amina Mohamed – thanks to her stellar career at the World Bank and other global leadership positions, which convinced many of her supporters then that her experience matched perfectly the demand of the top position.

Also read: What chance does Africa stand to lead the WTO?

The race

The tenure of the current Director-General ends in August 2025.

The African Group, an informal group of members who oversee African interests at the WTO, wrote to the General Council in July requesting the reappointment of Okonjo-Iweala.

"The African Group is of the view that it would be in the best interest of the Organisation if the process of reappointment were to start early for a number of reasons,” Chad, who currently leads the group, wrote to the General Council.

The African Group advanced a number of arguments to support the reappointment of Okonjo-Iweala, among which included the fact that the organization delivered many successes at two ministerial conferences (2022 and 2024) led by the current director general.

"It is essential that we build on these results at MC14 [2026 ministerial conference],” the group chair said in a note that was circulated among members and seen by The New Times, adding that it would be important to ensure continuity and preserve the gains made so far.

Africa Kiiza, Research Fellow at Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, challenges the fact that a few countries who came together to endorse Okonjo-Iweala shouldn’t be treated as if it was a whole African continent.

"Actually it's a few countries in the Africa group led by Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria and Benin. Others like Egypt, South Africa, and Morocco have been skeptical. They are being "coerced” into admission,” he claimed.

Kiiza believes that Africa’s attempt to change the appointment process of the director general is a blatant disregard to the WTO rules.

"The rules are clear on when to initiate the selection of the DG. We (Africa) are changing those rules. The process is supposed to be transparent and predictable,” he noted, adding that when the U.S. and Japan try to change the rules to smuggle issues that are not on the agenda, the African group causes outcry.

"Why then should we do the same?”

Under Okonjo-Iweala’s leadership, the WTO adopted an agreement on fisheries subsidies during a ministerial conference in 2022, where members agreed to stop subsidies that promote illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing which has depleted the world’s fish stocks.

"Globally, I can say that the DG is trying to convince the developed countries that she is capable of delivering in/for their agenda. But I don’t yet see anything for development,” Paul Batibonak, a former Cameroonian diplomat at the WTO, told this publication.

His statement perhaps points to a perceived lack of progress on issues critical to developing countries. Developing nations typically prioritise issues such as fairer trade rules, agricultural subsidies, capacity building, and support for economic development.

Batibonak asserted that those who are not experts in WTO issues may see that she is highlighting light issues, sometimes undermining crucial issues for developing countries.

"In a context where African Group is not really proactive in considering data, laying emphasis on each important decisive parameter of the negotiations, there is concern,” he noted, arguing that she is working on specific points which may not be of great value for Africa.

Also read: US refuses to back Africa’s candidate for WTO top job

What has Ngozi done?

The WTO head showed signs of dealing with issues that African countries hold dear, such as access to life-saving vaccines and therapeutics. However, she couldn’t make further progress.

In June 2022, she facilitated a symbolic agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) that sought to allow countries to suspend patent protections on COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, enabling them to manufacture generic versions and facilitate technology transfer to boost production in developing nations.

The agreement allowed for some flexibility in how countries could use compulsory licensing (overriding patent protections) for the production of COVID-19 vaccines, but it fell short of the full waiver initially proposed.

The deal was narrower in scope, applying only to vaccines (not treatments or diagnostics) and including conditions that some stakeholders felt were too restrictive.

Kiiza highlighted that the TRIPS deal has not served any African interest, saying that until now, big pharma through their countries such as US and Germany have refused to release patents to support massive production of vaccines and therapeutics in Africa.

Negotiation style

Okonjo-Iweala, now 70, has often criticised the current negotiation process at WTO, saying it’s inefficient and less flexible, often members delivering same statements that do not yield result since it’s hard to achieve consensus, a key component for any agreement to be reached at the WTO.

Since taking over the reins of the organisation, she has favored members negotiating in small groups to reach a certain level of consensus. While supporters admire her negotiating skills, some members have criticised her for processes they say are opaque and exclusive.

The African Group initiated the appointment process of the DG earlier than anticipated.

"Even though there was consensus in the meeting to expedite the process, the US and others were silent and had expressed concerns informally to the chair,” a trade expert based in Geneva said, preferring anonymity.

The expert highlighted that this is why the African Group nuanced its request because it requires an amendment to the rules of procedure, something she says is a systemic issue that many countries have a problem with.

The move to start early appointments, initiated in July before U.S. President Joe Biden withdrew from the election campaign and supported by dozens of countries, was seen as motivated partly by a bid to secure her second term ahead of the U.S. vote in November.

Under WTO consensus rules, that would be possible if nobody else applies and all states accept her.

In 2020, former U.S. President Donald Trump's administration blocked her appointment in a step seen by some as an attack on an organisation he once described as "horrible.”

Okonjo-Iweala secured the U.S. backing when Biden succeeded Trump in 2021. Now the African Group wants to reappoint her before Trump could possibly win the presidential election slated for November.

"We want to beat Trump at his game. That is dangerous because a WTO DG that the US does not support is not good for the organization,” Kiiza asserted.