WTO chief leaves before term expires for personal reason
Posted May 14, 2020 01:23:24 PM.
Last Updated May 14, 2020 01:24:08 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
GENEVA — The head of the World Trade Organization said Thursday he will leave his post a year before his term expires, an unprecedented mid-term resignation at the WTO that he called a “personal decision.”
Roberto Azevedo, a former diplomat from Brazil, said he will step down on Aug. 31, cutting short a seven-year tenure marked in recent years by intense pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who accused the Geneva-based trade body of an anti-U.S. bias and other complaints.
“This is a decision that I do not take lightly,” Azevedo told a special meeting of WTO delegations. “It is a personal decision – a family decision – and I am convinced that this decision serves the best interests of this organization.”
The 25-year-old trade body has never had to fill a vacancy for the director-general post before that term expired, and under WTO rules, a selection process for a successor is to begin as soon as possible.
Azevedo’s WTO often found itself in the firing line of the Trump administration, which accused the trade body of a bias against the United States and of letting China get away with what it called unfair trade practices.
The Associated Press
