Sports CS Amina Mohamed fails to secure WTO top job

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Sports CS Ambassador Amina Mohamed at a past briefing. The CS did not qualify for the final round in the WTO top job./COURTESY

Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed has failed to qualify for the next round in the search for the World Trade Organization Director General.

CS Amina alongside Liam Fox of the United Kingdom and Mohammad Maziad Al-Tuwaijri from Saudi Arabia failed to secure enough support, leaving Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria and Yoo Myung-hee of South Korea to battle it out in the final round.

The report from Bloomberg says by advancing two women, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Yoo Myung-hee, to the final round of the selection process, the WTO will likely have the first female director-general in its 25-year history.

“They’re both very well qualified, it’s going to be a fight,” said William Reinsch, a trade official in the Clinton administration and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The top challenge will be “restoring the organization to full strength and viability, and restoring its reputation. “You need members to have confidence that the WTO is capable of solving problems. I think right now that confidence is eroded.”

The two finalists were expected to be announced today at Geneva.

Kenya had nominated CS Amina Mohamed for the position which fell vacant after Roberto Azevedo stepped down. Amina had East Africa Community backing.

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