RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilian diplomat Roberto Azevêdo said his decision to leave the World Trade Organization a year earlier would be the best means to avoid further turmoil in the alliance, already rocked by attacks from US President Donald Trump and the onset of a global recession.
“I’m leaving because, frankly, I think it’s the best thing for me, for my family and for the organization,” Azevêdo, the WTO’s director-general, said in a phone interview with Bloomberg News on Thursday, adding that time was a key factor in this decision. “We are not doing anything now. There are no negotiations, everything is stalled. There’s nothing happening in terms of regular work.”
Azevedo’s premature departure, scheduled for September 2021, comes at a sensitive time for the WTO: global trade is expected to contract to historic lows and projections point to the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. One of the main tasks of the Geneva-based organization, arbitration of trade disputes, was also curtailed by the US last year.
Azevêdo, 62, said it would be better to resign early to prevent a situation where the selection process for his successor would overshadow the next WTO ministers’ meeting.
Succession process
Although the WTO has not yet set a date for the next biennial meeting, Azevêdo said that if it were to take place in June 2021, the preparations would be “completely destroyed” by the succession process.
He said this would “kill” the meeting, which “is a very critical part of the WTO reform process and the future of the organization”.
And while the WTO’s operations are stalled by the pandemic, the organization was already experiencing hardship. The WTO dispute settlement system was undermined last year after the US blocked all nominees to the Appellate Body and WTO members failed to complete a multilateral trade negotiation in half a decade.
Azevedo acknowledges that his sudden departure could add to the narrative of a broken and ineffective WTO.
“It can contribute to that,” he said. “But it’s essentially not true. If I remain, will the virus disappear? The virus will not vanish. If I stay, will the US and China suddenly shake hands and say, ‘OK, let’s let bygones be bygones’? No, that’s not going to happen. Nothing will change if I stay.”
Energy
Now is the time for new blood in the WTO’s command, said Azevêdo “I hope a new Director-General will inject just the kind of energy and vigour that I believe is desperately needed”.
“The ship is not sinking,” he said. “This ship is sailing well, and what I’m doing is passing the command of the ship on to someone else.”
Azevedo did not want to reveal his next steps, but made it clear that he is not seeking a political career in Brazil, unlike his wife, Maria Nazareth Farani Azevêdo, who is Brazil’s ambassador to the United Nations.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ll ask my wife.”