WTO boss’ recent early exit a warning shot to multilateralism 

The embattled World Trade Organization has announced two shortlist candidates to be its new leader. In a historic first, both are women. But they are unlikely to find the job any easier than Brazil’s Roberto Azevedo. Azevedo stepped down unexpectedly before the end of his mandate. Why did he go and what are the pressures of this job? Either South Korean trade minister Yoo Myung-hee or former Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala will be the next WTO director-general in a race expected to conclude in the coming weeks. An insight into Azevedo’s track record and reasons for going give some insight into what awaits his successor. Officially, the Brazilian claimed that the gesture was a way to preserve the system, which had already been severely undermined. By anticipating the choice of the new director, he would prevent the election of the new boss from coinciding with and contaminating the WTO ministerial conference scheduled for 2021. But for months, Geneva saw an...