By Dayo Akindipe

  • Introduction

It is palpable to note that a Multilateral Organization such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) has never been led by an African and all the six Director-Generals since the establishment of the WTO in 1995[1] till date are preponderantly from Europe, with only one from Asia both in number and duration in office.[2] Pascal Lamy, from France spent eight years in office as the longest serving Director General in the history of the WTO from 2005 -2013.[3] However, the WTO now has 164 country members[4]  and with the increasing challenges developing countries or African countries experience in the WTO, the multilateral organization must chart a new course by having a leadership that can efficiently represent these interests of the developing countries and least developed countries particularly Africa which is essential in the creation of a common institutional framework.

This year, there are eight candidates that have expressed their interests or nominated by their respective governments to be appointed to the coveted position of the Director General of the WTO with only three from African Countries, i.e. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala from Nigeria; Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh from Egypt and Amina Mohamed from Kenya.[5] These candidates have been filtered in the several stages of the appointment process to only two female candidates. These two candidates are Ngozi Okonjo Iweala from Nigeria and Yoo Myung-Hee from the Republic of Korea.[6]

The scope of this article is to evaluate the chances of an African leading the WTO. In this analysis, the paper will discuss the voting process, low representation of Africa in the affairs of the WTO and budgetary contributions of Africa to the WTO as well as other multilateral organizations.

a.Low Representation of Africa in WTO

To begin with, it is noteworthy to state that within the structure of the WTO, there are no significant representation of African countries. This is the case since all the chairpersons of several committees such as the: General Council; Trade Negotiations Committee, Council for Trade in Goods and Services and Plurilateral Agreements which consist of over 40 functional councils or sub-committees of the WTO are chaired by persons from foreign nationals except for only four committees chaired by individuals from African countries including South Africa, Togo, Central African Republic and Djibouti.[7] What is even more worrisome is that the sub-committee established for the least developed countries is chaired by Ambassador Monique T.G. Van Daalen from Netherland.[8] This clearly does not reflect a common institutional framework which is the objective of the Marrakesh Agreement. This may likely reflect in the current selection process of the Director General of the WTO. What is more is that Ambassador Yonov Frederick Agah from Nigeria is currently one of the four Deputy Director Generals of the WTO and his tenure will end in October 2021.[9] This may affect the probability of selecting another Nigerian as its Director General.

b. Appointment Procedure of the WTO Director General

The selection process for the appointment of the Director General of the WTO even though loosely stated does not take into account factors that may lead to unintended consequences such as impartiality of the in house facilitators. This is the case since the Chairman of the General Council plays a determinant or facilitating role in the selection process and having an individual who is not independent of the general affairs of the WTO conduct such a crucial activity is worrisome and could undermine the principles of fairness. The current selection process certainly creates a clear assumption that the Director General of the WTO could be appointed through a predetermined outcome.

The selection process as specified in the WTO documents adopted by the General Council on the 10th of December, 2002 is as follows:-

  1. The appointment process shall commence nine months to the expiration of the term of the incumbent Director General
  2. Members must within one month of the commencement of the appointment process nominate their candidates.
  • The nominated candidates will be invited to make a brief presentation to members at a General Council meeting and also answer questions from members.
  1. The nominated candidates shall have three months to ‘make themselves known to the members’ of the WTO
  2. The general council after consultations within the final two months of the appointment process, shall have the responsibility to decide on a candidate based on consensus.
  3. In the event where it is not possible to appoint a candidate based on the procedures above, members will resort to voting.[10]

This article clearly posit that the procedure for the appointment of a Director General of the WTO is palpably flawed. The procedure did not articulate in concrete terms the criteria to be followed by the facilitators during consultation with WTO members in the selection of a candidate based on consensus. The procedure did not articulate in concrete terms the process of voting as a last resort. The procedure did not describe what it meant by candidates ‘will make themselves known to members’? Could it also imply campaigning? This procedure has created a needless ambiguity from the expected standard of appointment process.

c. Budgetary Contributions

According to the 2020 Annual Report of the WTO on the budgetary contributions of its members,  Nigeria contribute about 0.300% to the budget of the WTO and Republic of Korea contribute 2.900% to the budget of the WTO.[11] This may be a factor to be put into consideration in the selection process of its Director General.

What is more worrisome is that the total contributions of all African countries in the WTO is not up to 10% of the overall budgetary contributions received in the WTO whilst the overall contributions of all countries from the European Union in the WTO is 33.94%.[12] In fact, no Africa country member of the WTO has a contribution up to 1% and South Africa has the highest contribution of about 0.479%.[13]  For clearer illustration, the information on budgetary contributions of some African countries in the WTO is provided below:

S/N COUNTRY BUDGETARY CONTRIBUTION TO THE WTO (%) 
South Africa 0.479%
Nigeria 0.300%
Angola 0.194%
Ghana 0.086%
Republic of Congo 0.058%
6. Cote d’lvoire 0.056%

Source: 2020 WTO Annual Report

www.wto.org/budget

This is not the case for the developed country members of the WTO. For instance, the United States contributed 11.7%; China 10.3% and Germany 7.1% to the budget of the WTO.[14] These are the countries with the highest contribution to the revenue of the WTO whilst most African countries or developing countries contribute so little and this may likely influence the outcome of the selection process of the Director General of the WTO. Juxtaposing these findings, let us briefly discuss how budgetary contributions affected the decision making of another multilateral institution.

This position is validated from the recent event at the African Development Bank (AFDB) since the non- regional members of the AFDB contribute to its capital base more than most regional members (African Countries) which increases voting power and external pressure. According to the financial report of the AFDB in 2019, the top four capital contributors of the AFDB are shown below:

S/N COUNTRY CAPITAL CONTRIBUTIONAmount Paid on Subscribed Shares VOTING POWER %(of total voting power)
1. Nigeria 472,892 9.369
USA 318,225 6.651
Japan 263,470 5.514
South Africa 225,893 5.077

Source: 2019 Financial Report of the AFDB

As a result of the capital contributions of non-regional members, the United States recently vetoed the decision of the ethics committee of the AFDB by calling for another independent investigation into the allegations levied against its President, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina.[15] It is therefore recommended that the African countries must increase their voting right by increasing and paying up their respective share subscriptions to be able to mitigate external pressure from non-regional members of the AFDB.[16]

d.Conclusion

Turning back to the WTO, the African countries in the WTO must also scale up their budgetary contributions to be able to withstand any underlying politics or external pressure that might affect decision making process. The WTO must therefore chart a new trajectory that will reflect a common institutional framework and diversity of its members taking into consideration Africa not only at the top level but in its entire organizational structure.

[1] The Marrakesh Agreement established the WTO

[2] For more information, see the WTO website: https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/dg_e/dgsel20_e/dgsel20_e.htm accessed 11 September, 2020

[3] Ibid. Other past Director Generals include Peter Sutherland (Ireland); Renato Ruggiero (Italy); Mike Moore (New Zealand); Supachai (Thailand); Pascal Lamy (France) and the incumbent Director General Roberto Azevedo (Brazil)

[4] For more information on the list of members of the WTO: see https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/org6_e.htm accessed 8 October, 2002

[5] For more information, see the WTO website: https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/dg_e/dgsel20_e/dgsel20_e.htm accessed 11 September, 2020

[6] Bryce Baschuk, “Race to WTO Leadership is Down to the Final Two Candidates” (Bloomberg, 7 October, 2020)

[7] For more information, see the WTO website: https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/secre_e/current_chairs_e.htm accessed 12 September, 2020

[8] ibid

[9] For more information, see WTO website: https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/dg_e/ddg_ra_e.htm accessed 8 October, 2020

[10] WTO Agreement, articles IV.2, VI.2 and IX.1

[11] WTO Secretariat Budget, 2020 at pp 180 -181. For more information, see https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/secre_e/budget_e.htm accessed 11 September, 2020

[12] ibid

[13] WTO Secretariat Budget, 2020. For more information, see https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/secre_e/budget_e.htm accessed 11 September, 2020

[14] ibid

[15] Kalu Ojah, “Independence is at the heart of the AFDB to be effective” (The Conversation, 2020) https://theconversation.com/independence-is-at-the-heart-of-the-african-development-banks-ability-to-be-effective-141638 accessed 2 October, 2020

[16]ibid