According to Reuters news agency from Geneva on May 4, the World Trade Organization chose again that day two trade experts from China and the United States, Zhang Xiangchen, currently China’s vice minister of commerce and former Chinese representative to the WTO, and Angela Ellard, a lawyer and trade expert who was chief trade adviser to the U.S. House of Representatives PrepCom, to serve as the organization’s deputy director general, as a way to maintain a delicate geopolitical balance.
It is known that the World Trade Organization traditionally selects professionals from the United States, the European Union, Asia and developing countries to serve as the organization’s deputy director general. Two of the four selected are women, which is the first time in the history of the WTO that half of the deputy director general positions are held by women.
The other two WTO deputy directors-general are France’s ambassador to the WTO, Boggan, and Costa Rica’s former trade minister, Gonzalez.
A spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said Wednesday that the WTO’s appointment of Zhang Xiangchen is a recognition of China’s “active and constructive” role in the WTO over the years.
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