Yoo Myung-hee Holds First Meeting with New WTO Director-General... From Competitors to Partners

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] Yoo Myung-hee, Director-General for Trade at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, who competed in good faith for the position of Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the new WTO Director-General, have united their intentions to restore the WTO's functions.

Director-General Yoo and Director-General Okonjo-Iweala held their first official meeting via video conference on the 30th. Amid recent concerns about a crisis at the WTO, the two agreed that substantial achievements should be made by the upcoming Ministerial Conference scheduled for November, so that the WTO can lead the recovery of the multilateral trading system.

They also exchanged views on ways to advance ongoing plurilateral negotiations, including those on fisheries subsidies, e-commerce, investment facilitation, and domestic regulation of services. In particular, they exchanged opinions on restoring the dispute settlement system, including the reinstatement of the Appellate Body, and agreed to jointly work towards reaching member consensus on a reform roadmap for the dispute settlement system at the next Ministerial Conference. The WTO Appellate Body has been non-functional since December 2019 due to the United States' opposition to the appointment of Appellate Body members.

Furthermore, the two expressed concerns over a series of recent vaccine export restrictions and agreed to minimize trade-restrictive measures by countries under the 'Trade and Health Initiative.'

Meanwhile, Director-General Yoo requested Director-General Okonjo-Iweala to increase the number of Korean staff at the WTO Secretariat, noting that despite Korea's trade volume and WTO contributions, the presence of Korean personnel is significantly low, and expressed hope that more Korean talents will work in influential positions within the WTO Secretariat in the future.

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