This archive report was first published on 8 July 2020.
Kenya's Sports and Culture Minister Amina Mohamed has been nominated to run for the Director-General position at the World Trade Organization (WTO), a critical juncture for the trade watchdog.
Published on July 8, 2020, the nomination comes as the WTO seeks a replacement for Brazil's Roberto Azevedo, who is stepping down a year early at the end of August.
According to a WTO official, the nomination was received from Kenya late on Wednesday, July 8, 2020. 'For Amina Mohamed, yes we can confirm that we received her nomination from Kenya late yesterday,' the official said.
As the sixth candidate to be officially nominated, Mohamed will compete alongside others from Egypt, Nigeria, South Korea, Mexico, and Moldova. Three of the candidates are women, and there is broad support for an African candidate and a woman, as neither has headed the Geneva-based body in the past.
Mohamed, a former Kenyan ambassador to the WTO and the first woman to chair the WTO's General Council in 2005, 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.
