Exclusive | Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: fair trade of coronavirus vaccine should top WTO agenda, says Nigerian candidate

Former Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala pitches herself as an ‘unusual director general’ to break the status quo at the World Trade Organisation

Skilled in diplomacy but perceived to have less trade experience than rivals, the ex-World Bank official says WTO’s issues ‘will not be solved by more of the same’

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Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Nigerian candidate looking to take over the top spot at the World Trade Organisation, says the global trade body needs to ensure that coronavirus vaccines and medical supplies are allocated fairly. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:00pm, 19 Aug 2020Updated: 8:42pm, 25 Nov 2020

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala vows that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will ensure future coronavirus vaccines and medical supplies are traded and allocated fairly, should she become the next director general of the Geneva-based body.

Pitching herself as a reformer willing to reverse the WTO’s stagnation, the Nigerian candidate said the pandemic should be “used as an opportunity to put down markers – to solve a problem that the world is confronting right now”.

“How do we get these vaccines in a way that poorer countries are not standing behind, but that they can be accessed based on some allocation criteria, but that also speaks to trade and the rules? Because at the end of the day, moving vaccines is also trading them,” said Okonjo-Iweala, a development economist by training, a former Nigerian finance minister, and current chair of the board of vaccine alliance group Gavi.

“Ninety countries also have export restrictions right now – medical supplies and equipment, even on food – because of fear of what Covid will bring. How does the WTO respond to that? Are countries responding to the rules that it has in this respect,” she asked, insisting that this, along with negotiations over fisheries and e-commerce rules, can be quick wins for an institution now often dismissed as a talking shop.

Data compiled by economist Simon Evenett at the University of St Gallen in Switzerland showed, that as of August 7, there had been 551 trade restrictions implemented at national levels on “sensitive goods” such as vital foodstuffs and medical supplies. For medical supplies alone, there were 414 restrictions in place.