New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser wants the top job in world trade, the director-general of the World Trade Organisation.
It is one of the top-ranking economic jobs in the world, after the head of the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank.
Mr Groser would be the second New Zealander to fill the job after Mike Moore, who held the position in early 2000s.
Mr Groser is a former top-ranking official at the WTO, having chaired the committee on agricultural trade negotiations in Geneva before entering Parliament.
WTO director-general Pascal Lamy, of France, steps down late in 2013.