WTO Chief Okonjo-Iweala Reinstated for Second Term as Trade Wars Loom

World Trade Organization chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (AFP)

World Trade Organization chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was reappointed for a second term at a special meeting on Friday, the trade watchdog said, meaning her tenure will coincide with US President-elect Donald Trump's second administration.
Analysts expect the road ahead for the three-decade-old WTO will be challenging, likely characterised by trade wars with Trump, who returns to the White House on Jan. 20, threatening hefty tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada and China.
Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance minister who made history in 2021 by becoming the WTO's first female and first African director-general, announced in September that she would run again, aiming to complete “unfinished business.”
No other candidates ran against her and all of the WTO's 166 members agreed by consensus to a proposal to reappoint her.
Trade sources said the meeting created a means of fast-tracking her appointment process to avoid any risk of it being blocked by Trump, whose teams and allies have criticised both Okonjo-Iweala and the WTO in the past.
In 2020, his administration gave its support to a rival candidate and sought to block her first term. She secured US backing only when President Joe Biden succeeded Trump in the White House in January 2021.
President Joe Biden on Thursday warned against damaging relations with Canada and Mexico, after Donald Trump threatened to slap tariffs on both US neighbors when he takes office in January.
“I think it's a counterproductive thing to do,” Biden told reporters when asked about his successor's plan.
“The last thing we need to do is begin to screw up those relationships. I think we got them in a good place,” he said during a visit to a fire department in Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he is spending his last Thanksgiving holiday as president.
Trump sent jitters through global markets on Monday when he announced on social media that one of his first presidential actions would be to impose 25-percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada -- which share a free trade pact with the United States -- and add a 10-percent tariff on China.
Pledging that tariffs would only be removed from the US neighbors when illegal immigration and drug trafficking stop, he reaffirmed his intent to use trade as a cudgel against allies and rivals alike.
After expressing opposition to Trump's threats in a letter, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke by phone with the Republican president-elect on Wednesday.
Trump claimed that Sheinbaum had agreed to “stop migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border.”
When asked about the dispute at her daily press conference on Thursday, Sheinbaum said: “I can assure you... that we would never -- we would not be capable -- of proposing that we were going to close the border.”
Biden on Thursday also talked about the importance of maintaining a working relationship with China.
“We've set up a hotline between President Xi and myself, as well as our military, a direct line,” Biden said, adding he was "confident" that his Chinese counterpart “doesn't want to make a mistake.”
“I'm not saying that he is our best buddy, but he understands what's at stake.”