KESAVAPANI TO TAKE OVER WTO DG SELECTION PROCESS

7:48 AM Feb 6, 1995

KESAVAPANI TO TAKE OVER WTO DG SELECTION PROCESS
Geneva 6 Feb (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- The Chairman of the General Council of the World Trade Organization, Amb. Kesavapani of Singapore, is expected to take over soon the consultation process for choosing a successor to Peter Sutherland as Director-General of the GATT/WTO.

Sutherland has agreed to continue, and named as the first D.G. of the WTO till 31 March. In making this announcement last December, it was announced that the GATT CPs will choose his successor by 15 February.

The consultations among GATT Contracting Parties has been conducted so far by Andras Szepesi of Hungary, who was Chairman of the GATT CPs in 1994, and it had been originally intended that to provide 'continuity' he should continue the consultations (even though there will be a new set of officers for the GATT CPs).

The EU -- presumably believing that 'continuity' will give it an edge -- in fact intervened in Budapest to ensure that Szepesi is kept on in Geneva to complete the process.

However, Szepesi has now been appointed as independent (paid) Chairman of the Textiles Monitoring Body under the WTO's Agreement on Textiles and Clothing and as such an official of the secretariat.

In announcing Szepesi's new job on 31 January, when the WTO General Council met, GATT officials had said Szepesi would complete the consultations on choosing Sutherland's successor before taking over his new job.

However, developing countries, particularly major textiles and clothing exporters, were not willing to have the implementation of the ATC put off till 1 March, and wanted to have a functioning TMB.

In any event, the chances of a successor being chosen by consensus by the 15 February deadline, that had been aimed at, is now seen as nil.

The United States and the European Union are still divided over the candidacies of the two candidates each is backing: former Mexican President Carlos Salinas by the United States and the former Italian Trade Minister, Renato Ruggiero by the EU. Asians who are backing Korea's Kim Chul-Su are showing no signs of withdrawing support and swinging their votes behind one of the other two.

In such a situation, and given the Washington's sensitivities in the Mexican crisis, and its impact in Mexico and US, it is not feasible for a successor to be chosen from among the three by mid-February. Even a choice by end of March, a GATT delegate said, could be problematical. It would require a US-EU high-level understanding, and their ability to do it, and choose a successor in such a way that others would not merely be asked to fall in line but feel that it is also their choice.