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Reuters

World Trade Organisation head Roberto Azevedo will step down a year earlier than planned in August, he said on Thursday, in a surprise move as the trade body struggles to rein in global tensions and coordinate responses to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 62-year-old Brazilian has been director general since 2013 and is serving a second term that was expected to conclude at the end of August 2021.
Azevedo said that he had taken a “personal decision” after talking with his family and that his move was not expected to health reasons or because of specific political ambitions.
According to the text of an address to the WTO’s members, Azevedo said he thought it was also in the best interests of the organisation.


“As members start to shape the WTO’s agenda for the new post-Covid realities, they should do so with a new director general,” he told a virtual meeting of national members on Thursday afternoon.
His departure comes at a testing period for the 25-year-old body, which has seen its role in settling disputes undermined after its Appellate Body was paralysed in December by Washington’s decision to block the appointment of judges.
Since the Covid-19 crisis hit, Azevedo has called for governments to refrain from imposing export restrictions on food and medical supplies.
The WTO club of 164 members, which is designed to set global trading rules, has also not produced any major international accord since abandoning its “Doha Round” of negotiations in 2015.
US narrows WTO subsidy list, making it easier to target China
Its members are negotiating an agreement to cut subsidies for fishing to allow a revival of depleted fish stocks, while a smaller group are discussing a possible deal on e-commerce. However, key differences remain and they are far from the consensus required to agree both deals.
Some members, notably the United States, Japan and the European Union, are pushing for more fundamental reforms. They say global trading rules need to reflect new realities – notably a far stronger China – and address problems such as state-led subsidies and forced technology transfers.
Such issues might have been addressed at the WTO’s biennial meeting expected to have taken place in Kazakhstan in June. That has now been pushed back to mid- or late-2021. Azevedo said his departure would allow a successor to be in place before then.

Azevedo said the WTO could not stand still while the world around it changed, nor ignore the “new normal” that had emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic.
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Azevedo would be difficult to replace and that Washington looked forward to taking part in the process of selecting a successor.
EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan said it was a good time to find a new chief but this needed to be done this year not next as the WTO was encountering major challenges and louder voices demanding reform.
Simon Evenett, professor of international trade and economic development at Switzerland’s University of St Gallen, said the next director general would need to put the WTO back together again.
“The next leader of the WTO must command respect in the corridors of power of the major players. This is not the time to promote another ambassador. Someone with very senior government experience or global status is needed,” Evenett said.
Azevedo was a career diplomat, while his predecessors have mostly had political backgrounds.



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World Trade Organization (WTO)

WTO chief Roberto Azevedo stepping down a year early as trade body struggles with coronavirus response

WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo attends a session at annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January 2019. Photo: AP

(FILES) In this file photo taken on December 10, 2019, the World Trade Organization logo at the trade intergovernmental organization headquarters in Geneva. - The growing use of export restrictions by governments can be "dangerously counterproductive" as the world deals with the coronavirus pandemic, the IMF and WTO warned on April 24, 2020. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

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The appeal body of the World Trade Organisation ceased to function on December 11. Photo: Reuters

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The World Trade Organisation today sets the rules for 96 per cent of global trade. Photo: AFP

An employee works on the production line of a television factory under Zhaochi Group in Shenzhen, China August 8, 2019. Picture taken August 8, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

epa08044340 China's President Xi Jinping claps as he listens to Russian President Vladimir Putin via a video link, from the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, 04 December 2019. EPA-EFE/NOEL CELIS / POOL

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US, EU and Japan take aim at China with proposed WTO rules targeting state subsidies

The phase one trade deal will lead to China buying more US products, but it is not expected to tackle tough issues such as subsidies. Photo: AFP

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Director general reveals ‘personal decision’ to depart in August instead of in 2021 as originally expected
Azevedo says World Trade Organisation should shape post-Covid-19 agenda under new leadership



Director general reveals ‘personal decision’ to depart in August instead of in 2021 as originally expected.


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