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Mexico Nominates North America Trade Envoy Seade as WTO Head

Mexico Nominates North America Trade Envoy Seade as WTO Head

(Bloomberg) -- Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador nominated Jesus Seade to lead the World Trade Organization, looking to capitalize on his work with the U.S. and Canada to renegotiate North America’s free trade deal.

The move makes Seade the first official candidate in what’s expected to be a competitive process. Seade is currently the undersecretary of foreign relations for North America and previously taught in universities in Hong Kong and China.

“He’s straightforward, he’s honest,” Lopez Obrador said in a video posted on Twitter announcing the nomination, flanked by Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard. “He’s a supporter of understanding between countries for facilitating trade relations.”

Seade was tapped by Lopez Obrador in 2018 to work alongside negotiators from then President Enrique Pena Nieto’s administration to reach an initial deal for the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement, know as USMCA. Last year, he negotiated further changes with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to win Democratic support for passage in Congress. The agreement takes effect July 1.

The WTO’s outgoing director-general, Roberto Azevedo of Brazil, said in May he plans to step down in August -- before his term ends in 2021. That sets up a potentially contentious search for a successor at an organization caught in the middle of an economic fight between the U.S. and China in the early days of a global recession.

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