WTO chief's expected resignation in the midst of the global economic crisis - France 24

Geneva (AFP)

The expected resignation of the director general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Brazilian Roberto Azevedo, had the effect of a bomb on Thursday, as the coronavirus pandemic has brought the world economy down.

Responding to press reports that he would step down before the end of his term in 2021, a spokesman for the organization, Keith Rockwell, told AFP that "'The WTO will have an announcement at this subject after the meeting of heads of delegation at 4:00 p.m. (2:00 p.m. GMT) ".

According to several diplomatic sources, the Brazilian's future will be on the meeting's agenda.

The probable premature departure of the Brazilian in September comes at a time when the world economy is recording its most violent brake since the Great Depression of the 1930s. International trade is hit hard by the pandemic of new coronavirus which has s' collapse production and trade.

The WTO has been going through a deep crisis for months, with the court settling commercial disputes between its members no longer able to count on its appellate body, the bane of Washington.

If confirmed, the resignation of the boss of the WTO "comes at a very bad time for the institution," said Sébastien Jean, director of the Center for Prospective Studies and International Information (CEPII).

"The trading system is deeply destabilized both by prior tensions, including harsh criticism of the President, multiple breaches of the agreements, the US-China trade war and the paralysis of the appellate body, and by measures taken in reaction to the crisis, including restrictions on various and varied exports, "he told AFP.

- A fine negotiator -

Career diplomat Roberto Azevedo, who took over as head of the world trade policeman in 2013 by succeeding Frenchman Pascal Lamy, began his second four-year term in September 2017. His term was expected to end in late August 2021.

Before being the boss of the WTO, he was since 2008 the permanent representative of Brazil to this organization where he had forged a reputation as a fine negotiator. He had thus been head of delegation in key disputes won by Brazil at the WTO: in the case of cotton subsidies against the United States and sugar export subsidies against the European Union.

During his first candidacy, he also stressed that his election would unblock trade negotiations which had been stalled for years.

And in 2014, after six months of blockage, the member states of the WTO had given the green light to the launch of a historic customs agreement (TFA) aimed at boosting world trade, by simplifying customs procedures.

- Under American pressure -

But countries have struggled since then to sign new agreements, and can't even find an agreement to ban subsidies that encourage overfishing. The conclusion of an agreement on this subject failed at the 11th WTO Ministerial in Buenos Aires in late 2017, and the 12th Ministerial, which was to be held from June 8 to 11 in Nur-Sultan in Kazakhstan and on which l 'The WTO had founded all its hopes, had to be postponed sine die due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Despite his attempts at discussion, Roberto Azevedo also failed to prevent the United States from wringing the legal arm of the WTO. The appeal body of the dispute settlement body (DSB) of the WTO, whose appointment of judges is blocked by Washington, is indeed no longer operational since December 11, for lack of sufficient magistrates.

Since the arrival of Donald Trump at the White House, the international organization and his boss have also witnessed, helplessly, the commercial hostilities between the United States, China and the European Union.

The United States is also urging the WTO to revise the status of China, which, according to Washington, is usurping its status as a developing country in order to gain economic advantage.

It remains to be seen who could take over the WTO. In Geneva, eyes are turned to Africa, according to several diplomatic sources.

"There is a consensus (...) so that the succession does not return to a great economic power, and it cannot be neither a Chinese nor an American" taking into account the trade war which the two powers are waging, indicates a diplomatic source at AFP.

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