How Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Is Expected to "Shake Things" At The W.T.O

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the incoming chief of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has a reputation for shaking up the guardians of wealth and power, and this quality will come in handy in her new role.

Because of her effort to root out corruption during her first stretch as Nigeria’s finance minister, opponents of her plans nicknamed her “Okonjo Wahala” (Okonjo the trouble maker).
The 66-year-old development economist welcomed the moniker and true to form, trouble was what Okonjo-Iweala withstood campaigning for the WTO job. Finding herself on the wrong side of the Trump administration, her lack of trade-negotiating experience made her the target of a one-sided U.S. veto despite the endorsement of the organization’s selection committee and almost all other member nations.
Now, with President Joe Biden’s administration’s blessing after the only other candidate withdrew, Okonjo-Iweala is poised to become the first woman and the first African to lead the WTO in its 25-year history. She will also be the first American citizen to hold the organization’s top job.
In an interview with Bloomberg, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said “She is this wonderful, soft, very gentle woman with an authentic approach to problems but, boy, under that soft glove there is a hard hand and a strong will behind it, she is going to rock the place.”
We also agree that Okonjo-Iweala is going to make a very strong impact, and we have our reasons:

READ ALSO: Okonjo-Iweala Gets Clear Path To WTO Job

WTO’s Crisis Credentials
The WTO is largely dysfunctional and all three pillars of its work are under threat, so they most definitely need a shaking up. Its usefulness has been called into question as China’s brand of state capitalism has increased its footprint on the global economy, causing criticism from Brussels to Brasilia.
The organization has struggled to produce meaningful multiparty agreements, its trade-monitoring function has consistently underperformed and former U.S. President Donald Trump neutralized the WTO appellate body in late 2019. With a budget last year totaling $220 million and a staff of more than 600, it has become an ineffectual bureaucracy during the most troublesome period for international commerce in generations.
 

Ngozi’s Agenda
Okonjo-Iweala has pledged to find common ground among the trade body’s incongruent membership. She hopes to score some early negotiating wins – such as a multilateral accord to curb harmful fishing subsidies as a means to restore trust and build momentum for larger deals.
She’s also optimistic about prospects for an agreement to govern the $26 trillion global e-commerce marketplace, which could reduce cross-border hurdles for U.S. technology companies like Facebook Inc., Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Netflix Inc., and Microsoft Corp.
During her campaign for the job, Okonjo-Iweala portrayed herself as both a trade outsider and a power broker in global finance, pointing to a 2005 agreement she helped secure to write off $18 billion of Nigeria’s debt to the Paris Club, a group of mostly western government creditors.
Okonjo-Iweala persuaded skeptics like former U.S. President George W. Bush that despite the high price of crude at the time, Nigeria’s $25 billion in oil revenue only amounted to 50 cents a day for each Nigerian, and debt relief was necessary to put Nigeria on the right track.
“The way she brought about the debt deal was incredible, very few people could have done that,” said David de Ferranti in an interview with Bloomberg, who worked with her at the World Bank. 
Her Extraordinary Background
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1976 and earned her doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981. 
After moving to Washington, she quickly rose through the ranks at the World Bank and in 2013 was named managing director – the organization’s highest unelected position. 
Until recently, Okonjo-Iweala served as the board chair at the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. This experience could help the WTO navigate the health and economic implications of the Covid-19 pandemic.
 

Tough Reforms
During her two terms as Nigeria’s top finance official, Okonjo-Iweala helped stabilize one of the world’s most volatile economies by leading significant reforms to the country’s energy-based economy. The issues she confronted in that role were politically difficult, economically weighty, and personally dangerous.
Her efforts led to death threats from entrenched interests, and in 2012 a group of kidnappers, suspected to be envoys of those frustrated by Okonjo-Iweala’s efforts to fight corruption in Nigeria’s oil industry – abducted her 83-year-old mother and demanded she resigns immediately.
Okonjo-Iweala immersed herself in work and recalled the advice of her father, who told her as a child to never allow anyone to intimidate or blackmail her. Ultimately, her mother survived the ordeal.
A Fresh Approach
As the WTO’s next director-general, she’s going to need fortitude and persistence. Among the most significant challenges before any repair work begins: undoing the deep level of mistrust between rich economies and those of the developing world. That bad blood has given rise to protectionism -- the antithesis of the WTO’s mission of “open trade for the benefit of all.” 
Okonjo-Iweala is aware that a big part of her job will be refereeing the trade battles between China and the west, and she has pledged to work towards finding a common ground between developed countries and advanced developing countries.