D Ravi Kanth reports that a "Divisive race starts for the top job " in the WTO (Deccan Herald of Bangalore, April 25).
This is an interesting column, treating several topics. I'm going to focus on comments on the concerns raised about the "transparency" of the WTO Director-General selection process:
" India and China, however, expressed concerns about lack of transparency in the selection process. The two countries supported the Brazilian demand that figures ought to have been indicated so that the losing candidate knew why he is being asked to leave. India's senior trade negotiator Gopal Pillai told Deccan Herald, “We didn't question the process but we feel there has to be greater transparency.”
The WTO’s powerful General Council chairperson Ambassador Amina Mohamed turned down the Brazilian request for figures saying that she is not bound to reveal the confidential information shared by the members during confessions.
The problem with the selection process is that there are no white and black rules. Rules framed in 2002 allow the triumvirate — the chairs of the General Council, the dispute settlement body, and the trade policy division — to arrive at a result based on their assessment. That assessment is based on geographical support-spread, preference for candidates from the industrialised, developing, and least-developed countries and so on. “I went by the rulebook,” Ambassador Amina Mohamed told Deccan Herald .
But some countries strongly feel that the losing candidate at each round has to be justified by a clear explanation as to why he is being asked to vacate. “If you choose to not reveal figures as demanded by Brazil, why did the GC chair announce rankings among the candidates making it look so and so is the winner,” said an Asian trade envoy. “Obviously, she wants to tilt the balance in favour of one candidate,” the envoy argued, refusing to disclose the name of that one candidate..."
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