---
title: "Okonjo-Iweala Agrees to Run for Second Term as WTO Chief"
description: "World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is seeking a second term as the rule-setting body for international commerce faces rising protectionism from some of its founding members."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "Newsdeck"
author: "Bloomberg"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/bloomberg/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-09-16-okonjo-iweala-agrees-to-run-for-second-term-as-wto-chief/"
published: "2024-09-16T18:14:00"
updated: "2024-09-16T18:14:02"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 215
---

# Okonjo-Iweala Agrees to Run for Second Term as WTO Chief

> World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is seeking a second term as the rule-setting body for international commerce faces rising protectionism from some of its founding members.

By Bloomberg · Published 16 September 2024, 20:14 SAST · Updated 16 September 2024, 20:14 SAST

## Content

She aims to continue in the top position at the Geneva-based WTO when her current term expires Aug. 31, a spokesperson said Monday. Okonjo-Iweala, who turned 70 this year, took office in March 2021 as the first woman to hold the position.

A group of African nations had requested she stay in the job and she accepted, “taking into account the overwhelming and broad-based support expressed by members” at a general council meeting in July, according to the emailed statement from WTO spokesman Ismaila Dieng.

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The [appointment process](https://docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/SS/directdoc.aspx?filename=Q:/WT/L/509.pdf&Open=True) is done by consensus of the WTO’s 166 members, typically starting nine months before the expiry of the current term.

Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance minister, has had mixed support from the past two US executives — both of which have pushed for reform at the WTO.

In the last presidential election year of 2020, the Trump administration supported a different candidate — then-South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee to be WTO director-general, slowing the selection process. In early 2021, a newly elected Biden White House backed Okonjo-Iweala and she got the job.