Geneva, 30/06/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Director General of the World Trade Organisation, Supachai Panitchpadki, has set up a consultative Council to advise him of the challenges facing the WTO and the multilateral trading system. This council will be chaired by Peter Sutherland, President of BP and former European Commissioner and Director General of GATT (from 1993 to 1995). The other members are professors Bhagwati (University of Colombia), Hamada (Yale), Jackson (Georgetown), Lafer (Sao Paulo: he is also a former Brazilian Foreign Minister, and Brazil's permanent representative to the WTO), President of the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI), de Montbrial, co-president of Unilever, FitzGerald, director of Programmes for Africa at the Harvard Centre for International Development, and former Ghanaian Finance Minister Dr Botchwey.
Mr Supachai also asked the consultative council to look into ways of improving the WTO and its functioning, and its relations with other international organisations, and also how to increase public awareness of its work.