WTO: US moves to foil Okonjo-Iweala’s emergence with ‘veto’ power

The United States of America is currently seeking to foil the emergence of Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the Director-General of the World Trade Organization, with the Trump’s administration moving to veto her.

NAIJA LIVE TV gathered that the Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, Dennis Shea said Washington won’t join a consensus to appoint Okonjo-Iweala because the U.S. supports her opponent, South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee, according to WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has pushed for Yoo even though Okonjo-Iweala gained American citizenship in 2019.

Sources close to him say he views Okonjo-Iweala, a longtime top official at the World Bank, as being too close to pro-trade internationalists like Robert Zoellick, a former USTR from the Bush administration who worked with her when he was president of the Washington-based bank.

The U.S.’s lone resistance to the majority-backed Okonjo-Iweala opens the possibility of months of gridlock over the selection process and more diplomatic friction with trading partners like the European Union.

“I’m surprised and disappointed in the U.S. reaction,” said William Reinsch, a trade official in the Clinton administration and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “I had hoped Lighthizer would have more respect for the institution than that.”

WTO decisions are made by a consensus of its 164 members, which means a single country — especially the world’s largest economy — can create a stalemate to pressure others.

The Geneva-based institution will keep working to reach a consensus ahead of meeting of the General Council tentatively set for Nov. 9. (Bloomberg)

The metal spur attached to the rooster’s leg cut through his left thigh, lacerating his femoral artery, said Arnel Apud, provincial police director.

“I have a heavy heart as we have lost a brother who sacrificed his life in the name of service,’’ he said in a statement.

“It was an unfortunate accident and a piece of bad luck that I cannot explain.’’

Six suspects holding the illegal cockfight were arrested in the raid, Apud said.

Cockfighting is popular in the Philippines, where legal fights are held in licensed cockpits usually at weekends, and spectators can place bets on the result of the match, which often ends in the death of one of the roosters.

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