Brussels, 17/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - As we previously indicated (EUROPE 8947), following the withdrawal of the Brazilian candidate, Luiz-Felipe Seixas-Correa and Jayen Cuttarree from Mauritius, for the post of WTO Head, who were considered as being less able to obtain the consensus of Member States, Carlos Perez del Castillo also withdrew from the race last Friday. Former European Commissioner for trade, French Socialist Pascal Lamy was recommended by the selection committee in charge of appointing the director of the World Trade Organisation. After interviewing all his colleagues and pointing out that he had more support than Mr Del Castillo, the Kenyan Ambassador, Amina Mohamed, responsible for organising the election, recommended that the 148 countries chose Mr Lamy to take over from Supachai Panitchpakdi on 1 September at the Head of the WTO for a mandate of four years. Apart from a veto from one or several member countries, Mr Lamy's appointment is expected to be confirmed on 26 May by all WTO countries during the general council meeting. Refraining from making any public statement, Lamy did say that he would make a commitment during his mandate to “respect the diversity of the organisation's members”. During a brief press conference on Tuesday in Paris, Lamy also pointed out that the “conclusion of the Doha Round is the number one, two and three objective of the WTO and those working for it”. He underlined that the “agricultural barrier” remained a “crucial question” in the negotiations leading up to Hong Kong next December.
At the end of the selection process, the number of countries supporting the different candidates was not made public and most countries kept their choices confidential. One of the main unknowns was the position of the USA but Mr Lamy could very probably count on the support of Washington's support, in part because of the friendship between him and the US Representative for Trade, Robert Zoellick, now number two in the State Department, and partly because of European support for the candidacy of Paul Wolfowitz at the Head of the World Bank. Perez del Castillo's appeal for the WTO director to come from a southern country (supported by Latin America, China, some Arab countries and developed countries like Australia and New Zealand), did not prevent certain emerging big countries like India and Pakistan to support the European candidacy. Lamy also clearly benefited from the support of the 56 ACP group countries, which supported Mr Cuttaree in the previous rounds. These countries are linked to the EU through preferential trade agreements (which Latin American countries oppose).
Jayen Cuttaree speaking about Mr Lamy said that they would see whether it was possible to disassociate its commitment supporting Europe in order to provide wide support for the interests of poor countries even if this meant a confrontation with the EU and rich countries. South African president, Tahbo Mbeki declared that he was ready to work with Mr Lamy to deal with the challenges of developing countries. The Brazilian foreign affairs minister Celso Amrorim said that he trusted Mr Lamy entirely for “strengthening the multilateral system”. The Japanese minister of foreign affairs said, “We are convinced that the abundance of expertise and skills of Mr Lamy will contribute to the completion of the Doha Round”. Jacques Delors, the former Commission president, for whom Lamy was director of cabinet, said that, “he will make the WTO the first new kind of international institution, a prelude to the changes in the other organisations for better managing globalisation and he will create ties between trade, the social arena, the environment and monetary stability. You will see, the WTO will make gigantic steps forward under his leadership”.