South Korea’s first female trade minister bids for top WTO job

South Korea’s trade minister Yoo Myung-hee has announced her bid to become the next director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), aiming to be the first female leader at the body.

The nomination process began earlier this month to find a successor to Brazilian Roberto Azevedo, who will vacate the post a year early at the end of August.

“The international community is increasingly becoming more protectionist … in order for the WTO to overcome the current crisis, the role of a middle power to mediate conflicts among member states is important,” Yoo said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Korea will be able to serve as a bridge, based on its growth experience through trade.”

Yoo is the first woman to hold the position of South Korea’s trade minister since it was created in 1948 and, if selected, would be the first female WTO director-general.

Yoo, 53, led South Korea’s renegotiation of a trade deal with the United States and worked on South Korea’s trade pacts with Singapore and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Earlier this month, South Korea resumed a WTO dispute process with Japan over export curbs on some high-tech materials, saying talks to resolve the dispute, born out of a deterioration in bilateral relations last year, had failed to make progress.

South Korea relies heavily on foreign trade, with exports and imports making up 63.7 percent of its 2019 nominal gross domestic product, according to Korea International Trade Association data.