Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 13 • Number 1 • 14th January 2009
Lamy Emerges as Lone Contender for Next WTO Chief
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For the first time in the 14-year history of the WTO, the race for the next leader of the global trade body will be uncontested.
As nominations closed 31 December, current WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy emerged as the sole candidate for the four-year position. Lamy, who has headed the organisation since September 2005, confirmed his intentions to run for a second and final term in early November (see BRIDGES Weekly, 6 November 2008, http://ictsd.net/i/news/bridgesweekly/32641/).
The French national’s first term was dominated by gradual advances, but ultimate stalemate, in the seven-year-old Doha Round of trade talks. At the centre of the collapsed negotiations lies continued disagreement between industrialised and developing nations – a gap that Lamy was unable to bridge.
In a letter to WTO General Council chair Bruce Gosper announcing his intention to seek re-election, Lamy highlighted the successes of, and challenges remaining, for the global trade body following his first term.
“We have seen the Doha negotiations move closer to the finish line; we have seen the Aid For Trade agenda take a prominent place as a necessary complement to trade opening; we have welcomed five new members into the organisation; we have worked to enhance the participation of all members, in particular the poorest, in the activities of the organisation” Lamy wrote. “We have seen all of this and much more but it is undeniable that, today, the tasks ahead of us remain challenging, in particular in view of the current world financial turmoil.
“I stand ready to continue to serve the WTO for a second term and to make a contribution to reinforcing multilateralism and development,” Lamy’s letter concluded.
Some observers have questioned the significance of Lamy’s uncontested bid, saying that it represents a failure of the WTO’s 153 members to submit another candidate.
“The decision by WTO members not to propose contenders to Lamy’s quest for re-election signals, at best, their confidence in Lamy’s continued leadership and, at worst, the perceived lack of viable alternatives,” Carolyn Deere, Resident Scholar at ICTSD and Director of the global trade governance project in the Global Economic Governance Programme at University College, Oxford, commented in a blog (available here: http://www.globaleconomicgovernance.org/blog/2009/01/the-wto-in-2009-the-leadership-challenges/).
“For many members, there are also concerns about rocking the leadership boat given the uncertain political environment and the tenuous future of the Doha Round,” Deere wrote.
An uncontested candidacy precludes the fierce campaigning and intense discourse that have characterised past contests for the top spot at the global trade body. However, the lack of competition may also deny Members the opportunity to examine Lamy’s track record in front of a global audience of stakeholders and academics.
WTO Members must now decide whether to make Lamy’s re-appointment automatic or to follow traditional procedures.
ICTSD Reporting; “Update – Lamy only candidate for next head of WTO,” REUTERS, 5 January 2009; “WTO says Lamy is sole candidate to head organisation,” AFP, 5 January 2009.
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