Two candidates left in race for WTO Director-General

Geneva, 2 May (Kanaga Raja) -- A third and final round of consultations on a revisedslate of two candidates to select the next Director-General of the WTO will getunderway during the week of 9 May, an informal WTO meeting at the level of Headsof Delegation (HOD) was told late Friday.

The two candidates are Pascal Lamy (former EC Trade Commissioner) and CarlosPerez del Castillo (former ambassador of Uruguay to the WTO). The two candidateswere announced in that order by the General Council Chair Ambassador AminaChawahir Mohamed of Kenya, both in terms of preferences expressed by membersand breadth of support in the second round of consultations held from April 21-27.

The third candidate, Jaya Krishna Cuttaree, Minister of Foreign Affairs, InternationalTrade and Regional Cooperation of Mauritius, came at the end of the list in the orderof preferences announced by the General Council Chair. At the end of the HODmeeting, the Chair informed members that she had been advised by the Mauritiusambassador to the WTO that Cuttaree had decided to withdraw his candidacy.

The informal meeting was called by Ambassador Amina to report to the membershipon the outcome of the second round of consultations (or 'confessionals' in WTOjargon) that was held on 21-27 April.

Ambassador Amina is being assisted in her consultations by two other WTO officials,the Chair of the Dispute Settlement Body, Ambassador Eirik Glenne of Norway andthe Chair of the Trade Policy Review Body, Ambassador Donald Stephenson ofCanada.

The first round of consultations got underway on 4-13 April with a slate of fourcandidates. The aim of the first round was to eliminate one of the candidates, withanother candidate to be eliminated in the second round, leaving two candidates for athird and final round.

In the first round of consultations, Ambassador Luiz Felipe de Seixas Correa of Brazilwas eliminated when he came at the end of the list in the order of preferencesannounced by Ambassador Amina.

At the informal meeting Friday, Ambassador Amina reported that based on anassessment of the information provided by delegations during consultations by herand the two facilitators, Jaya Krishna Cuttaree of Mauritius was judged the candidate'least likely of the three to attract consensus.'

She said that Pascal Lamy enjoyed the 'highest level of support' from members, bothin terms of preferences and breadth of support.

'On this basis, therefore, we intend to begin a third and final round of consultationsduring the week of 9 May, which will be based on a revised slate of two candidates,as follows: Mr. Carlos Perez del Castillo and Mr. Pascal Lamy.'

She indicated that she and the two facilitators will once again meet with individualdelegations in her office at the WTO for 5 minutes each and that delegations wouldbe invited to respond to the same question that was posed in the two rounds ofconsultations: 'What are your preferences?'

She emphasized that the consultations will continue at the level of Heads ofDelegation and that the process is to conclude with a General Council meetingconvened not later than 31 May, at which a decision to appoint a newDirector-General must be taken.

The General Council Chair reported to members that by the end of the second roundof consultations on 27 April, she had received views from 144 members out of a totalmembership of 148. Of these, 122 are Geneva-based, and 22 are non-residentdelegations. Of the 4 delegations that had not expressed their views by the end of thesecond round, only 1 is non-resident.

Members were consulted individually, in their capacity as representatives of membersand not of country groupings, regarding the views of their respective authorities onthe candidates nominated for the post. All delegations were invited to respond to thequestion: 'What are your preferences?'

Ambassador Amina said that in assessing the information received, and in reportingto members, she and her two colleagues have been guided strictly by the elements setout in paragraph 17 of the 2002 Procedures for the Appointment of Director-General(WT/L/509), which she said required them to assess Members' preferences and thebreadth of support for each candidate.

Paragraph 17 states that 'the ultimate aim of the consultation process shall be toidentify the candidate around whom consensus can be built. In order to do this, it maybe necessary to conduct successive consultations to identify the candidate orcandidates least likely to attract such a consensus.'

In assessing the preferences expressed by Members, she said that she and her twocolleagues were guided by the provisions of paragraph 17. Preferences were weighedboth in the rankings, if any, given by Members, and as a whole. 'Our assessment wasthe same, whichever way the preferences were examined,' she said.

As regards the breadth of support, she said that they had once again considered thedistribution of preferences across geographic regions and among the categories ofMembers generally recognized in WTO provisions: that is, LDCs, developingcountries and developed countries. Other criteria were rejected, including politicalgroupings or any measure of the size of individual Members, whether in terms oftrade, or population or territory.

The Chair stressed that these criteria are not recognized in WTO provisions, or werediscussed and rejected by Members in the formulation of the Procedures in 2002.

'As this is the final phase of the consultation process, it should bring us to the pointwhere we can make a recommendation to the General Council' concerning a finaldecision on appointment, she said.

Unlike at the previous informal HOD meeting on 15 April where the outcome of thefirst round of consultations was announced, there were no interventions made bydelegations at the informal HOD meeting Friday.

At the informal HOD meeting on 15 April, Ambassador Amina had said that a smallnumber of delegations had indicated some concern over the ability of the Frenchcandidate to lead the organization. She had also mentioned that other concerns wereraised by some members about a candidate (she did not specify who it was) whoasked her not to record these concerns and that these could wait till the future.

However, when speaking to the media after the informal meeting late Friday,Ambassador Amina said that she did not mention this issue to the members. Theconcerns did not affect the assessment that they (she and the two facilitators) hadmade, she said, adding that the procedures are very clear on what they need to lookfor in order to make their assessment.

Carlo Trojan, the EC Ambassador to the WTO, in speaking to the media later, saidthat as far as he knew, there were no objections expressed to Pascal Lamy'scandidacy.

In a brief statement, Peter Mandelson, the EC Trade Commissioner, said: 'This iswelcome and encouraging for Pascal Lamy. I detect a good tide in his favour and Ibelieve this is good for the WTO and its work.'