Somalia’s chief trade negotiator Maryan Hassan has resigned.
In a tweet, Hassan accused senior government officials of undermining her work at “every turn”.
Maryan was appointed by the Hassan Sheikh administration five years ago, highly respected as a competent and sharp technocrat.
Until her resignation, Maryan was the chief negotiator for World Trade Organization Accession at the Office of the President and former Chief Legal Adviser to the Prime Minister at the Federal Government of Somalia.
Somalia applied to join WTO on December 12, 2015, and the Working Party on the Accession of Somalia was established in December 2016.
WTO accession will help Somalia to participate in the multilateral trading system and gain market access on favourable terms to 164 economies that account for 98 per cent of global trade.
This means products from Somalia will have the opportunity to reach new markets and face reduced barriers to trade in those markets.
Somalia will also benefit from most-favoured nation treatment and national treatment by other WTO members under the WTO Agreements
Prior to working in Mogadishu, Hassan worked at the International Arbitration Practice of Al Tamimi and Co, the International Chamber of Commerce and the Somali Mission to the UN in New York.
She has advised the Office of the Attorney General of Somalia on issues related to public international law and international criminal law, such as the landmark transfer of Somali prisoners held in custody in various Indian Ocean Island states on charges of pirating
She assists the Clooney Foundation for Justice on its ‘TrialWatch’ initiative – she leads law students and junior lawyers from the Somali Bar Association, and was invited to work on the initiative by one its founders, Amal Clooney.
