The General Council meeting of the World Trade Organization(WTO) earlier scheduled for Monday, 9 November to consider, and deliberate on the confirmation of a substantive Director-General of the Organization has been postponed indefinitely.
This all-important meeting of the General Council had been scheduled to deliberate on the appointment of the next WTO Director-General following the refusal of the United States to go along with other member states of the organization who overwhelmingly expressed their choice of Nigeria’s former Finance minister and a former managing director of the World Bank, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the DG.
New Zealand’s Ambassador David Walker, who chairs the General Council, on Firday informed members of the WTO of the decision to postpone the meeting until further notice.
According to Walker ”the meeting would be postponed until further notice, during which time he would continue undertaking consultations with delegations.”
The New Diplomat had reported that the WTO General Council meeting was likely to be postponed due to the U.S presidential election. It turned out that’s exactly the case as the declaration of a winner between the Republican candidate, President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden has dragged on for three days since polls closed Tuesday in America.
Following his unassailable lead, it appears it’s only a matter of time before Biden is declared winner of the bitterly contested election, however, that decision has not been made yet.
The Trump’s administration has refused to back the former Nigeria’s minister, a move which has delayed the decision to confirm Okonjo-Iweala’s appointment till this time.
It’s unclear whether a Biden victory will lead to further postponement of the WTO member’s meeting until after the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, but diplomatic sources following up on the development said candidate Biden, currently on the cusp of emerging as 46th US President may not pick holes in Okonjo-Iweala’s emergence as her multilateral approach to global trade and issues, is something that suites the goal of the Biden’s administration to be.
