GENEVA • The World Trade Organisation's new leader pledged to shake up the Geneva-based trade body, but Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala's first speech as director-general stopped short of offering details on how she would change the way the WTO has operated for years.
Dr Okonjo-Iweala said members must focus on improving the lives of ordinary people and creating decent jobs for those who seek work. "It cannot be business as usual," she said in remarks published on the WTO's website. "We have to change our approach from debate and rounds of questions to delivering results."
Her initial approach to changing the WTO, however, mirrored her predecessor's method of prioritising discussions on low-hanging fruit for agreement at the WTO's ministerial conferences while pursuing "interim solutions" and "work plans" for longer-term debate on more divisive issues.
The 66-year-old developmental economist is just getting started on plans to reform the beleaguered trade body, which has failed to update its rule book to address many of the important changes that have occurred in the global trading system over the past 25 years.
The WTO has struggled to maintain its relevance over the past four years as it was sidelined by former United States president Donald Trump's unilateral trade actions against China and other major trading partners.
The Trump administration accelerated the WTO's crisis in 2019 when it opposed all new appointments to the organisation's seven-member appellate body, saying it had overstepped its mandate.
US President Joe Biden's administration last week said it would not agree to appoint new members to the body because the US "continues to have systemic concerns" with the functioning of the panel.
Separately, Dr Okonjo-Iweala did not endorse India and South Africa's call to waive intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines. She said members should instead focus on a short-term approach that encourages pharmaceutical companies to offer licences to increase vaccine manufacturing sites in emerging markets and developing countries.
BLOOMBERG
