Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today is an economist

whose ability to thrive in politics made her a popular choice to become Director General

of the World Trade Organization back in the spring of 2021. Ngozia-Conju-Iweila spent much of her career as a senior official at the World Bank,

but she also served twice as finance minister and briefly as foreign minister in her home country, Nigeria.

All valuable experience for what is now a high-pressure role as leader of the body charged with maximizing free and fair international

trade at a time when geopolitical tensions are threatening to undermine many of the assumptions

underpinning economic globalization.

The workings of the WTO itself have been affected by this new age of tension.

The US government has refused for years to cooperate in the appointment of new judges to the WTO's appeals panel,

effectively paralyzing the appeals process and undermining its role as arbiter of trade disputes.

All of it raises a question.

Has the WTO outlived its usefulness?

Well, Director General Ngozi Oconjoiuela joins me now.

Welcome to Hard Talk.

Thank you, Stephen.

Now, you are one of the world's key advocates of ever freer trade, more globalization.

What's it like to be doing your job when the political tide across the world is running against you?

The World Trade Organization, its purpose is to enhance living standards, to help create employment,

and to support sustainable development.

There could be nothing more worthy than that.

So it's supposed to deliver for people, therefore.

Nobody could quarrel with those objectives and that sentiment, but the truth is you are a membership

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