After the IMF and Unesco, here is another multilateral institution, the World Trade Organization (WTO), which will soon be headed by a woman.
In the long process of appointing the director general, the 164 member states agreed on Thursday on the two finalists among the five candidates still in the running.
The Kenyan, the Saudi and the British are out of the game. The choice will be between the South Korean Yoo Myung-hee, and the Nigerian Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
On Tuesday, the European Union officially supported this duo, with Paris preferring the African candidate.
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More than five contenders for the leadership of the WTO
The two women will soon be auditioned by the European Parliament.
Two profiles "
particularly qualified
", underlined the spokesperson of the WTO.
At 53, the Korean knows the workings of world trade well, having served as a minister in her country and having negotiated several free trade agreements, in particular with China.
The curriculum vitae of her rival, 66, is also well supplied: an economist by training, former Minister of Finance and Foreign Affairs, she was Managing Director of the World Bank and recently chaired the World Alliance for Vaccines and Vaccinations (Gavi).
It will certainly take a strong personality to try, in the midst of the economic slump, to bring the WTO out of paralysis, where the outgoing, the Brazilian Roberto Azevedo, failed.
It will certainly take a strong personality to try, in the midst of economic slump, to bring the WTO out of paralysis, where the outgoing, the Brazilian Roberto Azevedo, failed.
The last round to decide between them runs until October 27, with the deadline for reaching a consensus of November 7, just after the US election.