Nigeria's WTO candidate gets regional backing - document

GENEVA, June 22 (Reuters) - The West African regional bloc
ECOWAS is backing Nigeria's candidate to head the World Trade
Organization (WTO) and calls on other African countries to
follow, a document showed on Monday, in a possible step towards
uniting Africa behind her.
"The ECOWAS authority of heads of state and
government...calls on other African countries as well as
non-African countries to endorse her candidature," the document,
signed by Niger's President and ECOWAS chairman Mahamadou
Issoufou said, referring to Nigeria's Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
It was dated June 19 but was not finalised until Monday.
Brazil's Roberto Azevedo is stepping down as WTO head a year
early at the end of August.
His successor will need to steer reforms and negotiations in
the face of rising protectionism, a deep recession caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic and growing trade tensions, notably between
the United States and China. There is broad support for an African candidate and a woman,
since neither have headed the Geneva-based body in the past,
sources following the process said. Supporters of Okonjo-Iweala,
a former minister and World Bank managing director, vaunt her
negotiating skills, including clinching a multi-billion dollar
debt relief package for Nigeria.
Africa has previously struggled to unite behind one WTO
candidate and this time has so far been no different.
The African Union (AU) was due to officially endorse one of
three pre-selected candidates from Benin, Egypt and Nigeria.
But the process was disrupted by COVID-19 measures and
Nigeria swapped its candidate this month, prompting Egypt to
protest to the AU, sources following the process said.
The latter found that Nigeria had broken AU rules by
changing its submission, a document showed. An AU official
declined to comment.
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala's spokeswoman said: "Dr. Ngozi's
goal is to earn the support of all African countries, and she's
humbled by the support she's already received. There is time for
most if not all of Africa to unite behind one candidate."