EXPLAINER-How the next WTO chief will be chosen and the task ahead

GENEVA/BRUSSELS, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Five candidates from
Nigeria to South Korea are bidding to become the next
director-general of the World Trade Organization to replace
Roberto Azevedo, who stepped down at the end of August.
The next chief will broker international trade talks in the
face of widening U.S.-China conflict, protectionism increased by
the COVID-19 pandemic and pressure to reform trade rules.
U.S. President Donald Trump's "America First" policies have
upended the global trading order and presented an existential
threat to the WTO. Trump has called the institution "broken" and
"horrible". His administration has blocked appointments to the
WTO's Appellate Body that settles trade disputes, which now no
longer has the minimum number of judges to convene.

HOW THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL IS CHOSEN
An initial eight candidates were were given two months to
campaign until September 7. Normally this would involve trips to
national capitals, but with the pandemic much of that is being
done in a virtual format.
The field was cut to five in September and will be whittled
down to two in October before a final decision is taken.
The WTO is a members-driven organisation with decisions
reached by consensus among 164 countries. Three WTO ambassadors
who chair leading committees are leading the process, seeking to
establish which candidates have the widest support.
In so-called "confessionals", ambassadors step into a WTO
room and tell their preferences to this "troika" whose faces
appear on a screen due to COVID restrictions. The choices are
not ranked and without vetoes.
The second round takes plase on Sept 24-Oct 6. Voting on the
next director-general is seen only as a last resort if consensus
cannot be reached.
The process does not always work smoothly. In 1999, former
New Zealand prime minister Mike Moore and Thailand's Supachai
Panitchpakdi divided WTO members, with a compromise finally
found to give each a term, shortened to three years from four.
Azevedo's term finished before his replacement takes office,
but WTO members failed to agree on a temporary caretaker
director-general, meaning the four deputies are staying on in
their current roles. SOFT THAN HARD POWER
The Marrakesh Agreement that established the WTO in 1995
does not give a detailed description of the director-general
role. The responsibilities should be "exclusively international
in character".
The incoming chief will be expected to appoint four new
deputies, present budget proposals, and chair the trade
negotiations committee which oversees multilateral accords such
as on fishing subsidies.
The director-general can also intervene in trade disputes,
in very rare cases offering mediation, more often by appointing
people to adjudicating panels when parties cannot agree.
Otherwise, the director-general does not forge global trade
policy, but is meant to act as a neutral broker: part
administrator, part peacemaker.