This view is not limited to Trump’s allies, either. Harry Broadman, a former trade official in the Clinton administration, said that “Ngozi was a World Bank member, a finance minister, not a trade expert.”

“She’s smart, she’s very good, you know, diplomatically, but very few people have an obscure understanding of the WTO,” he said.

Yet his supporters appreciate his development orientation. The UK’s Ambassador to Geneva, Simon Manley, praised his “forward-looking agenda for green digital services and inclusive trade”, noting that he has rarely “met anyone so committed, so hard-working, also visionary and also networked.”

British Trade Minister Douglas Alexander, a former colleague of his at the World Bank, highlighted “his constant concern for the interests of the South as well as his ideas as a former finance minister”.

“We see her as the right woman, in the right place, at the right time,” he told POLITICO.

Her delivery could be better

As she considers a second term, the question remains whether Okonjo-Iweala’s tenure has produced substantial progress.