Korea's trade minister confident about her WTO chief bid

Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee attends a press conference following her hearing before 164 member states' representatives, as part of the application process to head the World Trade Organization (WTO) as Director General in Geneva on July 16, 2020. The eight candidates battling to become the next head of the beleaguered WTO make their pitches this week. AFP

South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee voiced confidence Thursday that Japan will look at her credentials as a candidate rather than bilateral disputes in choosing its pick for the next World Trade Organization chief.

The global trade body is preparing to select a new director-general to succeed Roberto Azevedo of Brazil, who is set to step down next month.

Yoo, who is running against seven other candidates, faces opposition from Japan, which has been locking horns with South Korea in a tit-for-tat trade dispute stemming from a Seoul court's ruling that ordered Japanese firms to compensate victims of wartime forced labor.

"I'm confident that Japan will also look at the candidates," she said during a press conference at the WTO headquarters in Geneva. "When they actually look at the candidates, to Japan, what's utmost important is the person's, the candidate's, competency and capability to save and enhance the WTO, and also to take up WTO reform. So in that regard, I will reach out to Japanese colleagues and will present my vision for the WTO."

Yoo said she would not comment on the ongoing Seoul-Tokyo dispute because it should be handled in accordance with relevant WTO procedures and rules.

She also noted that she was speaking as a candidate for the next director-general, not as a representative of the South Korean government.

"I am confident they will also approach this issue rather than from the perspectives of the disputes, but from the perspectives of saving and promoting the multilateral trading system," Yoo said, adding that the two countries have cooperated on many issues within multilateral fora.

"I would like to emphasize that Korea and Japan, we both share the understanding that we need to maintain, promote and enhance the multilateral trading system," the minister said. "Both of us are beneficiaries from the multilateral trading system and the WTO, and with the WTO in crisis, it's all the more important to work hard together to save and promote WTO." (Yonhap)

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