Trade Organization. It was negotiated during the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and entered into force with the establishment of the WTO at the end of 1994. The object ensures that technical negotiations and standards, as well as testing and certification procedures, do not create unnecessary obstacles to trade". The Agreement on Customs Valuation, formally known as the Agreement on Implementation of Article VII of GATT, prescribes methods of customs valuation that Members are to follow. Chiefly, it adopts the "transaction value" approach. In December 2013, the biggest agreement within the WTO was signed and known as the Bali Package. Office of director-general The procedures for the appointment of the WTO director-general were updated in January 2003, and include quadrennial terms. Additionally, there are four deputy directors-general. under director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the four deputy directors-general are: Angela Ellard of the United States (as of 4 May 2021) Anabel González of Costa Rica (as of 4 May 2021) Ambassador Jean-Marie Paugam of France (as of 4 May 2021) Ambassador Xiangchen Zhang of China (as of 4 May 2021) List of directors-general Source: Official website 2020 Director-General selection In May 2020, Director-General Roberto Azevedo announced that he would step down on 31 August 2020. , a nomination and selection process is currently under way with eight candidates and the final selection is expected on 7 November 2020 with the consensus of 164 member countries. A strong consensus had formed around the candidacy of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala but on 28 October it emerged that the US representative was opposed to her appointment. WTO members made history on 15 February 2021 when the General Council agreed by consensus to select Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria as the organization's seventh Director-General. Okonjo-Iweala will became the first woman and the first African to be chosen as Director-General. Her term, renewable, will expire on 31 August 2025. Budget The WTO derives most of the income for its annual budget from contributions by its Members. These are established according to a formula based on their share of international trade. Criticism Although tariffs and other trade barriers have been significantly reduced thanks to GATT and WTO, the promise that free trade will accelerate economic growth, reduce poverty, and increase people's incomes has been questioned by many critics. Some prominent skeptics cite the example of El Salvador. In the early 1990s, they removed all quantitative barriers to