* Okonjo-Iweala chosen as WTO's 7th chief
* Former Nigeria minister has strong reform record
* Geneva-based body leaderless for six months
* Trump paralysed some of WTO's functions
(Adds reaction from U.S., China, Nigeria, WHO; start date)
By Emma Farge, Alexis Akwagyiram and Philip Blenkinsop
GENEVA, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Three months after the Trump
administration rejected her, former Nigerian finance minister
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala received unanimous backing on Monday to
become the first woman and first African director-general of the
World Trade Organization.
A self-declared "doer" with a track record of taking on
seemingly intractable problems, Okonjo-Iweala will have her work
cut out for her at the trade body, even with Donald Trump, who
had threatened to pull the United States out of the
organisation, no longer in the White House.
As director-general, a position that wields limited formal
power, Okonjo-Iweala, 66, will need to broker international
trade talks in the face of persistent U.S.-China conflict;
respond to pressure to reform trade rules; and counter
protectionism heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In her acceptance speech at the WTO, she said that getting a
trade deal at the next major ministerial meeting would be a "top
priority" and also urged members to reject vaccine nationalism,
according to a delegate attending the closed meeting, which was
held virtually.
In the same speech, she described the challenges facing the
body as "numerous and tricky but not insurmountable". She is set
to begin work on March 1.
The U.S. delegate said that Washington was committed to
working closely with her and would be a "constructive partner"
while China's delegate pledged "full support" for her.
EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said he looked
forward to working closely with her to drive "much-needed reform
of the institution".
A 25-year veteran of the World Bank, where she oversaw an
$81 billion portfolio, Okonjo-Iweala ran against seven other
candidates by espousing a belief in trade's ability to lift
people out of poverty.
She studied development economics at Harvard after
experiencing civil war in Nigeria as a teenager. She returned to
the country in 2003 to serve as finance minister and backers
point to her hard-nose negotiating skills that helped seal a
deal to cancel billions of dollars of Nigerian debt with the
Paris Club of creditor nations in 2005.
"She brings stature, she brings experience, a network and a
temperament of trying to get things done, which is quite a
welcome lot in my view," former WTO chief Pascal Lamy told
Reuters last week. "I think she's a good choice."
Key to her success will be her ability to operate in the
centre of a "U.S.-EU-China triangle", he said.
The endorsement of the Biden administration cleared the last
obstacle to her appointment.
SWEET BUT STRONG
Okonjo-Iweala becomes one of the few female heads of a major
multilateral body. When she joins the WTO's Geneva lakeside
headquarters her portrait is set to be hung beside others of
men, mostly white and from rich countries.
The Trump administration's main criticism of her was that
she lacked direct trade experience compared to her main South
Korean rival and even supporters say she will have to quickly
get up to speed on the technicalities of trade negotiations.
She has rejected this, saying that she has plenty of
experience of trade plus other expertise.
"The qualities I have are even better," she said.
Raised by academics, the mother-of-four earned a reputation
for hard work and modesty amid the pomp of Nigeria's governing
class, acquaintances say.
"She is persistent and stubborn," said Kingsley Moghalu,
former deputy governor of Nigeria's central bank who worked with
her when she was the country's first female finance minister.
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari welcomed her election,
saying it brought "more joy and honour to the country'
Her appointment also was welcomed by people in the streets
of Nigeria's capital Abuja where Ibe Joy, who works in
marketing, said Okonjo-Iweala's achievements were an inspiration
to young women. "If she can do it we all can do it," said Joy.
REFORMING THE UNREFORMABLE
The 26-year-old WTO that Okonjo-Iweala inherits after a
six-month leadership gap is partially paralysed, thanks to the
Trump administration which blocked appointments to its top
appeals body that acts as the global arbiter of trade disputes.
But even before Trump, negotiators had struggled to clinch
deals that must be agreed by consensus, with the United States
and other developed WTO members arguing that developing
countries, notably China, cannot cling on to exceptions and that
rules need to change to reflect China's economic growth.
Okonjo-Iweala, who is a special envoy for the World Health
Organization on COVID-19 and, until recently chair of the board
of global vaccine alliance Gavi, has told Reuters that trade's
contribution to public health would be a priority.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called
Okonjo-Iweala the "WTO's perfect chief".
The WTO currently faces deadlock over an issue of waiving
intellectual property rights for COVID-19 drugs, with many
wealthy countries opposed. High on the to-do list will also be fisheries subsidies, the
subject of the WTO's main multilateral talks that missed a
deadline to conclude by end-2020.
Asked about the challenges ahead, she joked that a book she
wrote about fixing Nigeria's broken institutions could well
apply to today's WTO: 'Reforming the Unreformable'.
"I feel I can solve the problems. I'm a known reformer, not
someone who talks about it," she told Reuters in an earlier
interview. "I've actually done it".