Mike Moore, who overcame cancer and a lack of formal education to become prime minister of New Zealand and head of the World Trade Organization (WTO), died Sunday aged 71, his wife said.

Moore was WTO director general from 1999 to 2002 and oversaw China's entry into a global rules-based trading system. He launched the Doha Development Round in 2001 aimed at lowering trade barriers globally, and was New Zealand's ambassador to Washington from 2010 to 2015. Moore was prime minister of New Zealand for 59 days before the October 1990 general election, then leader of the opposition for three years following the Labour Party's defeat.

He survived three bouts of cancer as a young man, but had been in declining health in recent years following a stroke in 2015.