Carlos Perez del Castillo has withdrawn from the WTO Director-General selection process, leaving Pascal Lamy of France as the only one of the four candidates nominated in December (in accordance with the WTO's selection guidelines) still under consideration.
The WTO's General Council will meet on May 26 to make its formal choice - by consensus. If he's chosen, as he is likely to be, Lamy will take office on September 1.
Assuming Lamy is selected later this month, he and the WTO are entering a transition period:
- Between now and December, Doha Round negotiations will be intense. In December the member nation trade ministers meet in Hong Kong. They need to have substantial agreement on the general principles of the agreement by that point. The negotiations that must take place between now and December are difficult.
- To keep on track, member states need a first cut of the agreement by this July.
- Lamy's contract won't begin until September 1. By then, the July target will be a month in the past, and the negotiations for December should be substantially advanced.
- The WTO Director-General does supervise the WTO secretariat, but otherwise he has mostly a moral authority. He has limited formal authority for the negotiations.
- Lamy must choose four Deputy Directors-General.
- For over half the time between now and the early December Hong Kong meetings, Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, of Thailand, will remain the WTO Director-General. Will Lamy have a significant role between now and September? How will he interact with Panitchpakdi? Will Panitchpakdi find a way to use Lamy's talents to advance the Doha Round negotiations?
The selection committee of three ambassadors was technically just facilitating a decision; only the member nations can make the decision, and they can be sensitive about this. Although likely, Lamy's selection is not certain, as Peter Gallagher reminds us: "A crafted consensus on WTO leadership".
Recognizing these sensitivities and uncertainties, Lamy declined to make statements in advance of his formal selection by the WTO General Council, at a meeting on May 26. As Bradley Klapper reported for the AP:
Elisabeth Perennou, his assistant at the Our Europe think tank, said Lamy told her Friday that he will only comment after the General Council makes its formal decision May 26.
"He wants to respect the procedures," she said by telephone. "He will not be making any declarations."
"Pascal Lamy Wins Race to Lead the WTO" (via Forbes, May 13).
Lamy was the EU's trade negotiator for five years. Will he be able to move beyond his former role as an advocate, shake off his former positions, and be an honest broker? He was a little coy about his thinking in these comments in Georgetown, Guyana: "Lamy cautious on EU agricultural subsidies " (Bangkok Post, May 16).
Pascal Lamy defended his support for agricultural subsidies for European farmers but said the post he won on Friday to head the World Trade Organisation will force him to think differently.
Mr Lamy, who is French, said his track record of defending EU farm subsidies during his five years as European Union trade commissioner is on record for all to see.
``That was in my past. At this time I move to a different position,'' he said in brief remarks to reporters after meeting with Caribbean trade and agriculture ministers in Georgetown, Guyana.
``How much of myself I leave in the previous position and how much of myself I take to the new position is a sort of kitchen secret which I am not ready to disclose totally,'' he said.
The Times reports on the Georgetown comments as well: "Lamy takes charge at 'medieval' WTO", adding, among other things:
M Lamy appeared ready to seek a consensus. "The question is whether agriculture has to be treated in the same way as shirts, shoes, tyres or coal remains open," M Lamy said.
"If you put to the membership of the WTO this question, you will have different answers. Some will say it has to be run exactly the same way. Others will say agriculture has its specificities and this has to be taken into account in the way you frame the rules of world trade.
"I have my own views, but what I will have to do when confirmed is to respect the diversity of members' views and try to broker this into some kind of consensus. What the US and the EU did last year in accepting zeroing of export support is something they had to do and the rest of the members were asking from them and this I believe is going in the right direction."
It's note clear to me if these Georgetown comments were made just before, or just after, Friday's announcement by the selection committee.