Brussels, 01/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - The nine shortlisted candidates to take over as the new head of the World Trade Organisation, seven of whom come from developing nations, have two months of campaigning before the verdict is announced on 31 May.
Formal interviews began on Tuesday with the WTO General Council hearings of the potential successors to France's Pascal Lamy, and ended on Thursday 31 January. All said the WTO needed a breath of fresh air and all said they wanted to conclude the Doha Trade Round launched in 2001.
Former Ghanaian Trade minister Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen was the first to be interviewed, followed by Costa Rica's Trade Minister Anabel Gonzalez, former Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu, followed on Wednesday by New Zealand's Trade Minister Tim Groser, another African, Kenya's Amina Mohamed, who has several times been the Kenyan ambassador to the United Nations, followed by former Jordanian Trade Minister Ahmad Hindawi and former Mexican Industry Minister Herminio Blanco Mendoza. The last to be interviewed were South Korean Trade Minister Taeho Bark and Brazil's Ambassador to the WTO, Roberto Azevedo.
After an informal two-month campaign, the president of the General Council, the president of the WTO's dispute settlement body and the president of the WTO's trade supervisory body will hold consultations with the 158 WTO delegations behind closed doors. The candidate behind whom there is the greatest consensus among member nations will be chosen at the end of the process, on 31 May 2013 at the latest, with the unsuccessful candidates being asked one by one to withdraw. Pascal Lamy's term of office ends on 31 August 2013. (EH/transl.fl)