On June 9, 2020, the WTO received two nominations for consideration in the Director-General selection process. My earlier post reviewed Nigeria’s nominee, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. The second nomination received on June 9th was from Egypt for Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh. His bio is embedded below.
bio_egy_eMr. Mamdouh’s bio shows a long history of involvement with the WTO (Director, Trade in Services and Investment Division and other positions) and work in the Egyptian government on trade issues before GATT/WTO Secretariat involvement. So his strengths would include knowledge of the WTO and trade policy and his involvement relatively recently with Missions in Geneva. Being from an African country, he could have an advantage if the Members decide to select a DG from a region that has not had a DG in the past. However, like the other two candidates to date, Mr. Mamdouh is from a developing country. If Members decide to rotate between developed and developing, candidates from developing countries would be disadvantaged as DG Azevedo is from Brazil, a developing country. Like Jesus Seade, if the Members decide to select a female candidate, Mr. Mamdouh would be disadvantaged.
It is unclear if more candidates from Africa will come forward during the nomination process and whether nominees from African countries would withdraw if the African Union decides to support a single candidate. Multiple candidates from the same region can dilute support for any one candidate, making it less likely that any candidate from the region will become the Director-General (although prior experience shows multiple candidates from Latin America with Roberto Azevedo from Brazil becoming the Director-General).
So two days into the process, the WTO is at three nominees, two from Africa, and counting.