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WTO chief Roberto Azevedo to depart a year early

News Service
10:58 - 15/05/2020 Friday
Update: 11:05 - 15/05/2020 Friday
REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Roberto Azevedo
FILE PHOTO: World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Roberto Azevedo

World Trade Organization head Roberto Azevedo will step down a year earlier than planned in August, he said on Thursday, in a surprise move as the trade body struggles to rein in global tensions and coordinate responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 62-year-old Brazilian has been director-general since 2013 and is serving a second term that was due to conclude at the end of August 2021.

Azevedo said he had taken a "personal decision" after talking with his family and that his move was not due to health reasons or specific political ambitions.

In a text of remarks to the WTO's members, Azevedo said he thought it was also in the best interests of the organisation.

"As members start to shape the WTO's agenda for the new post-COVID realities, they should do so with a new director-general," he told a virtual WTO meeting on Thursday afternoon.

Asked about Azevedo's departure, U.S. President Donald Trump said he was "OK with it," telling reporters the WTO was "horrible."

"We've been treated very badly," he said. "They treat China as a developing nation. Therefore China gets a lot of the benefits that the U.S. doesn't get."

Senator Josh Hawley, a fellow Republican, this week introduced a resolution to withdraw from the WTO, blaming it for favoring China and "hollowing out American industry."


Since the COVID-19 crisis hit, Azevedo has called for governments to refrain from imposing export restrictions on food and medical supplies.

Azevedo said the WTO could not stand still while the world around it changed, nor ignore the "new normal" that emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic.

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4 years ago