Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 6 • Number 30 • 13th September 2002
WTO Secretariat Welcomes New Team At The Helm
On 1 September 2002, Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi (Thailand) took over his duties as new Director General (DG) of the WTO; duties which are to last three years. On 16 August 2002, he announced the four new Deputy Director-Generals, who would take office (also for three years) starting 1 October 2002.
Background
This switch mid-way through the usual four-year term for a DG is the result of a hard-fought battle between developed and developing countries over who would succeed former DG Renato Ruggiero (see BRIDGES Weekly, 3 May 1999). The battle over former DG Mike Moore or new DG Supachai lasted over a year and resulted in the WTO not having any DG for a number of months, but an Australian proposal that each take a three-year term finally resolved the deadlock in late-summer 1999.
The new DG
The new DG has a long history with trade and trade theory. With a PhD in economics that took 10 years to complete, he has often been said to be more preoccupied with the theory of trade than with its actual practice. The former Buddhist monk also headed Thailand’s delegation at the end of the Uruguay Round and has recently held top-level positions in the Thai government, including Deputy Premier and Minister of Trade.
As the organisation’s first leader from the developing world, a great deal of pressure has been put on him to champion the causes of the poor. And while his speeches throughout the year would indicate that he certainly intends to push those causes to the top of the agenda, some comments have prompted a few developed country delegates to comment that a danger does exist that he will be marginalized and ignored by the larger powers if not more careful with his words.
One of the concerns of the new DG, aside from ensuring that the latest round of negotiations finish on schedule, is the declining trend in the value of developing country exports versus their imports (what is referred to as their ‘terms of trade’). The international community must find "more innovative solutions to arrest this decline in terms of trade," he said. He has also remarked that his intention is to back all projects, of the WTO and other organizations, public or private, aimed at assisting developing countries.
New DDGs
The new team of Deputy Director-Generals or DDGs who will support Dr. Supachai in his aims include Mr. Roderick Abbott, (UK) who until recently was deputy Director-General of the EC Commission’s Trade Directorate and former head of the delegation in Geneva; Dr. Kipkorir Aly Azad Rana (Kenya), a former Ambassador/Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva and currently a senior representative at the WTO and the United Nations; Mr. Francisco Thompson-Flôres (Brazil), a former chief trade negotiator during the creation of MERCOSUR (1985-1988) and currently Brazil’s ambassador to Uruguay; and Mr. Rufus H. Yerxa (US), former deputy US Trade Representative and former permanent representative to the GATT (1989-93).
Some controversy has been raised with regards to Mr. Yerxa’s previous positions in the US’s corporate lobbying sector, pointing specifically to his position since 1998 as Chief European Counsel at Monsanto Europe (the EU arm of the large US biotechnology firm that is pushing, along with the US government, for the EU to accept imports of genetically- modified (GM) foods, see BRIDGES Weekly).
"Tough Legacy To Be Inherited By New WTO Chief," NYTIMES, 15 August 2002; "WTO DG Designate Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi Selects Deputies," WTO PRESS RELEASE, 16 August 2002; "New WTO Head Sets Out His Priorities," AP, 2 September 2002.