Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala will find the WTO a challenge – but the only way is up

A politician may have a better chance of sorting out WTO's problems than a technocrat

With Donald Trump's departure, it was only a matter of time before Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was appointed to run the World Trade Organization. Joe Biden could have maintained Washington's objection to the former Nigerian finance minister becoming the first woman and the first African to run the Geneva-based body, but has sensibly decided not to.

Like the football manager taking over a team struggling at the bottom of the table, Okonjo-Iweala is in the happy position of taking over at the WTO when the only way is up. Of all the big multilateral economic organisations, the WTO is the toughest gig: trade is a hugely contentious issue and yet decisions in Geneva are made by consensus. The old days when trade deals were a stitch-up between the United States and the Europeans are long gone. There has not been a successfully completed round of trade liberalisation talks since 1993. The WTO's ability to police global trade is in doubt because the US has blocked the appointment of new judges to its appeals body.