Egypt’s Mamdouh: WTO needs to find its ‘common purpose’ again

World Trade Organization members have lost their “common purpose,” Egyptian director-general candidate Abdel Hamid Mamdouh believes, telling Inside U.S. Trade his first priority if given the organization’s top job would be to rebuild political confidence in the system. Mamdouh, a lawyer with King & Spalding in Geneva and a former longtime director of WTO’s trade in services division, was formally nominated by Egypt last week. Two other candidates -- Jesús Seade of Mexico and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria --...