New WTO chief faces tough job to restore order to global trade

THE troubled World Trade Organization (WTO) is inching ever closer to having a new director-general; and all signs point to a woman leading the Geneva-based international body for the first time in its 25-year history.

A long selection process that began with eight hopefuls from around the world has produced two final candidates - Nigeria's Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and South Korea's Yoo Myung-hee. This last phase of the process began on Oct 19 and will continue until Oct 27, after which the WTO will seek to name a winner by consensus, hopefully in the early part of November.

Assuming that WTO members can coalesce around one of them, either Ms Okonjo-Iweala or Ms Yoo will take over the hot seat vacated by Roberto Azevedo, a Brazilian who stepped down a year earlier than planned in August as the WTO found itself in the crossfires of the trade war between the United States and China.