Kenya’s Sports CS Amina Mohamed has submitted request to be considered for the post of Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Ms Mohamed is competing against five other candidates including two from Africa for the seat that she missed seven years ago.
WTO through their website shows that CS Mohamed’s candidature had been submitted on July 7 by the Kenyan government.
Amina is seeking succeed Brazilian Robert Azevêdo, who will be stepping down later this year. The six shortlisted candidates will meet with the General Council to make pitches and respond to questions.
Amina has served who has served as kenya’s Foreign minister and Minister of Education contested against Mr Azevedo in 2013 and lost.
The WTO director-general is appointed through consensus among member states therefore she must do serious horse-trading before the August 31 decision.
Headquartered in Geneva, WTO was formed in 1995 to guide international trade and solve disputes. Decisions made on cases brought before WTO are final despite having no links with United Nations organisation.
Candidates eyeing the seat include former Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Egyptian commercial law professor Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh, Mexico’s Jesús Seade Kuri , Moldova’s Tudor Ulianovschi and South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee.
Amina hinted after the 2017 polls that she wanted to serve in a higher position that the CS job. Being the director-general of the WTO fitting because she already served on the body’s key decision making organs.
She was the chairperson of the General Council in 2005, the highest-level decision making organ of the WTO. The council is composed of envoys from member states.
Amina also contributed in steering the WTO to adopt the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (Trips), an international pact that allows nations with scarce resources to use technology from richer countries to make useful items like generic drugs, without harming their intellectual property owners.
Having served as head of the Dispute Settlement Body and Trade Policy Review Body, Amina argues in her bid that she will use her skills in “strategic leadership and effective communication” to make the WTO more responsive to current concerns in international trade.
But her candidature may see the country engage in more round of diplomatic pitching.
When Amina failed to clinch the seat in 2013, she was facing eight candidates including one from Ghana and observers believe that failure to reach a consensus with Ghana allowed the Brazilian to win.
