Nigeria's Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala facing no fight for WTO top post

Nobody besides the incumbent head of the World Trade Organization Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has thrown in their hat to lead the Geneva-based global commerce watchdog, Reuters news agency reports.

The lack of competition will come as little surprise to WTO observers who are bracing for a messy, recriminatory period of tit-for-tat tariffs under US President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office in January.

Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance minister who made history by becoming the body's first female Director-General and has broad backing among WTO members, announced she was running in September aiming to complete "unfinished business".

Asked whether both she and the WTO could be successful if Trump is elected, she told Reuters at the time: "I don't focus on that because I have no control."

'Lose-lose'

Months earlier, she said that Trump's tariff proposals would be a "lose-lose" situation that could upend the trading system.

A WTO spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday.

Even with no competitors, it is not certain that Okonjo-Iweala would be reinstated.

Trump's former trade representative Robert Lighthizer has called her "China's ally in Geneva" in an apparent swipe at her support for developing countries - a status Beijing currently enjoys at the WTO.

In 2020, Trump's administration sought to block her first term and she secured U.S. backing when President Joe Biden succeeded Trump in the White House.

"Her reappointment isn't a fait accompli, even if there's no challenger," said one Geneva-based delegate.

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