Aug 2, 1989

INDIAN TO HEAD THIRD WORLD TEXTILE ALLIANCE BUREAU.

GENEVA, JULY 31 (BY CHAKRAVARTHI RAGHAVAN)— Sanjoi Bagchi of India has been chosen by the 20-member International Textiles and Clothing Bureau (ITCB) to be its next executive director from January 1990.

The ITCB is an alliance of third world exporting members of the Multifibre Arrangement (MFA).

An Indian national currently working in the GATT Secretariat, Bagchi reportedly was chosen by seven votes against three for the incumbent, Mohamad Bajwa of Pakistan, with five abstentions, of the remaining five, one was absent, and the other four became ineligible to vote on technical grounds.

The selection by vote after several months of intense informal consultations and failure to reach a decision by consensus was apparently made at a private meeting of ITCB members last week. The details became known Monday.

Some ITCB members, who disclosed the details, privately expressed their concern that this episode, and the selection of the ITCB’s Chief Executive by a minority affirmative vote at a crucial juncture in the Uruguay round textile negotiations, might weaken the alliance and its objective of uniting the third world behind the drive for an end to the MFA regime.

The seven votes for Bagchi cast by Hong Kong, South Korea, Macao, Brazil, Colombia, India and Peru, China, Pakistan and Turkey voted for Bajwa, while Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Jamaica and Sri Lanka abstained. Maldives was absent.

Four others (Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay and Yugoslavia) could not vote on technical grounds.

The ITCB as an alliance third world exporting country-members of the MFA, came into being during MFA-3, taking over from a prior UNCTAD technical assistance programme funded out of a trust fund. It had been formed to present a united front against the importing countries who were persisting in discriminatory actions against imports from the third world and seeding to perpetuate the MFA regime.

Hong Kong, a leading exporter with an established market share in importing countries which is safeguarded by the MFA quota system, has been one of its founding members and at that time had favoured end to MFA.

But after the agreement between U.K. and China for reversion of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic in 1997, Hong Kong slowly began changing its views, and has now become ambivalent, ITCB sources said.

The position of Hong Kong, and South Korea, the other leading exporter, as also of the small and relatively new exporting countries, has emboldened the U.S. and EEC in private conversations and discussions to claim that third world countries do not really want end to MFA.

Inside the ITCB, Pakistan and India with support from Brazil, Egypt and one or two others, have been together and have favoured early end to the MFA. In the Uruguay round mid-term review process, both at Montreal and at Geneva in April had pressed for this.

The ITCB chaired by Amb. Darry Salim of Indonesia, in statements in the negotiating group and in proposals has sought to push the negotiations in the direction of commitment to begin phase-out the MFA and its restrictions and gradual but steady integration of the trade under GATT rules, and within an agreed timeframe to be settled in the Uruguay round. The leading and established exporters, benefiting from an assured quota regime, have been going along reluctantly.

The small ITCB secretariat had been providing the necessary technical inputs behind such a move, and in responding to the opposition of the U.S., EEC and other industrial countries.

Against this background, Hong Kong’s nomination of Bagchi, with South Korea and Macao throwing their support, appeared to have made the issue complicated, bringing in considerations other than merits of candidates.

Later India supported Bagchi’s candidature, while Pakistan sponsored Bajwa for another term and was supported by China.

The issue soon became a Hong Kong vs. China affair, and much before the Chinese actions against the "pro-democracy movement" and the reactions to it in Hong Kong, the sources said.