Yoo Myung-hee Announces WTO Director-General Candidacy: "Leading Middle Power Coalition"

"Early Visible Achievements in Dispute Resolution Systems and Electronic Commerce"

Yoo Myung-hee, Minister for Trade at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, attending the 10th Ministerial Meeting of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) on the 23rd. (Photo by Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy)

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] "The role of middle powers is crucial for the World Trade Organization (WTO) to overcome its crisis, and I believe that the Republic of Korea is uniquely qualified and capable of demonstrating leadership in solidarity and cooperation."

Yoo Myung-hee, the head of the Trade Negotiations Office, officially announced her intention to run for WTO Director-General on the 24th. She plans to formally submit her candidacy to the Chair of the WTO General Council through the Permanent Mission to Geneva within the day, Geneva time.

On the same day, Yoo expressed her determination to devote her experience and capabilities?such as facilitating the movement of essential personnel and smooth trade with Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada despite the COVID-19 pandemic?to the revival of the WTO.

She emphasized, "Korea, based on its growth experience and vision through trade and the trust built with partner countries by concluding numerous Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), can serve as a bridge between developing and developed countries."

In fact, Yoo is an experienced negotiator. She has been working since the WTO's inception in 1995 and is a veteran who led FTAs with the United States, China, Europe, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

True to her experience, she stated that if elected Director-General, her first priority would be to restore the WTO’s negotiation function. The WTO lost its dispute settlement function last year when the Appellate Body ceased operations. Yoo views this issue as the most serious crisis facing the WTO and emphasized that resolving it is synonymous with "reform and restoration."

She said, "The WTO currently needs trade experts and mediators," adding, "If I become Director-General, I will achieve early visible results in urgent areas such as the dispute settlement system and the reorganization of international norms including e-commerce."

There have been criticisms questioning whether it is appropriate to challenge for the leadership of the WTO, a multilateral trade organization, amid severe US-China conflicts and the world’s efforts to restructure global value chains (GVCs) and pursue 'blockization.'

Yoo responded, "Restoring and strengthening the WTO trade order and international cooperation system in crisis is important for enhancing our economy and national interests," and added, "I believe the Republic of Korea must play a responsible role in restoring and developing the WTO trade order and international cooperation system in crisis."

Meanwhile, the race for the next WTO Director-General intensified after Roberto Azev?do, the current Director-General from Brazil, unexpectedly announced his resignation last month with one year remaining in his term.

The candidate registration deadline is until the 8th of next month, and five candidates have declared their bids so far. Along with Yoo, the candidates include Jes?s Seade, Mexico’s Deputy Foreign Minister for North American Affairs; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Chairperson of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) from Nigeria; Hamid Mamdouh, a lawyer from Egypt; and Tudor Ulianovski, former Moldovan Ambassador to Geneva.

If Yoo is elected Director-General, she will become the first Korean and the first female Director-General of the WTO. This is Korea’s third attempt at the WTO Director-General position. In 1994, Kim Cheol-soo, Minister of Commerce and Industry, and in 2012, Park Tae-ho, then head of the Trade Negotiations Office, ran but were unsuccessful.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.