Liam Fox being lined up as Britain's candidate to lead World Trade Organisation

Liam Fox is being lined up for a possible return to a big political job as Britain’s candidate to lead the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The former trade secretary was sacked by Boris Johnson last year, but has remained loyal to the prime minister and would be a popular choice among Tory backbenchers.

His biggest rival for the nomination is thought to be Peter Mandelson, the former Labour cabinet minister and EU trade commissioner, who would be unlikely to get the nod from Downing Street.

Dr Fox is being considered at a critical time for the WTO, which is at the heart of the Conservative vision for signing post-Brexit free trade deals with countries across the world.

However, it has been crippled by the US-China trade war and left unable to adjudicate trade disputes since last December, when Donald Trump refused to appoint US judges to its appellate body.

The 58-year-old former trade secretary has close links in Washington and would need its support, or backing from one of the other big WTO power-brokers, to land the job.

But support from the Trump administration could backfire elsewhere in the world, given the president’s attempts to sabotage the working of the WTO – creating the biggest crisis in his 24-year history.

Ministers have until July 8 to nominate a candidate and will meet this week to discuss the issue, The Times reported.

It said the EU is split over Dublin’s nomination of Phil Hogan, the former Irish minister and current EU trade commissioner, with some national leaders keen for him to stay in Brussels.

Other potential candidates include Arancha González, the Spanish foreign minister, Amina Mohamed, the former Kenyan foreign minister and UN official, and Sigrid Kaag, the Dutch trade minister.

Dr Fox has continued to write extensively on international trade issues since leaving his cabinet post last July, having served for three years in Theresa May’s doomed attempts to strike a Brexit deal.

He once said it would be impossible, under WTO rules, for Britain to ban chlorinated chicken as part of a trade agreement with the US.

“There’s been no argument about food safety on chlorine-washed chicken – it’s been an argument about animal welfare,” he told an event.

“So, it’s not been about food standards per se, so that’s a slightly different debate and much more difficult to quantify because the legal definitions about it at the WTO are much less.”

Source: UK Politics - www.independent.co.uk