Controls On Vaccine Exports 'Hold Back' Pandemic Recovery, Warns Incoming WTO Head
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is set to lead the World Trade Organization. She talked with NPR about the WTO's role in improving access to vaccines and says there's "no doubt" that the WTO needs reforms.
The incoming head of the World Trade Organization says getting countries to drop export restrictions on vaccines and medical supplies needed to fight the coronavirus pandemic will be one of her top priorities.
Nigerian economist Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is set to become the WTO's director-general on March 1. She's the first woman and first African to lead the group that governs trade rules between countries.
The pandemic has had a profound impact on global trade, which "dropped precipitously in 2020," Okonjo-Iweala tells NPR's Michel Martin on All Things Considered.
Overall, the global economy contracted in 2020, according to the in 2021. But variants of the coronavirus and vaccine rollout complications make those .
