Big field in running for WTO director general
Candidates from nine mainly developing nations face off this week for the job of reviving stalled global trade talks as the new head of the World Trade Organisation.
Six men and three women, many of them present or former government ministers, have thrown their hat into the ring to replace Frenchman Pascal Lamy as head of the WTO.
"It is very good for the organisation to have so many candidates with so much experience and knowledge of the WTO system," agency spokesman Keith Rockwell told the Swiss news agency ATS on Monday.
The candidates, the largest number to vie for the top post since the WTO was created in 1995, face the WTO's general council over three days beginning yesterday. The director general's main job is to help advance global trade talks that aim to spur growth by opening markets and removing trade barriers, including subsidies, excessive taxes and regulations.
The replacement for Lamy, who finishes his second four-year term in August, will be charged with trying to revive the so-called Doha Round of trade talks. The Doha Round was launched in 2001 but has since encountered obstacles set in particular by China, the European Union, India and the United States.
As Lamy's second term drew to a close, developing countries said it was time that one of their own had another chance as WTO director general - something that is clearly reflected in the list of candidates put forward before the December 31 cut-off date.
"There is no advance voting in the regional groups [of WTO's 158 member countries], but the principle that the next director general should be from a developing country enjoys broad support," Rockwell said.
According to diplomatic sources, picking a WTO chief could be complicated by the fact that another top UN job is opening up this year: to head the organisation's trade and development body Unctad. Nations often try to balance representation in international organisations.
The existing Unctad head, Supachai Panitchpakdi of Thailand, who is preparing to retire, also happens to be Lamy's predecessor at the WTO, where he served a single term.
Since the WTO recently had an Asian chief, diplomatic sources suggest that the top post this time could go to Africa.
That could favour the first candidate to face the WTO's general council: Ghana's former trade minister Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen, who is a trade adviser at the UN Economic Commission for Africa and who is one of two African candidates.
