8:48 AM Feb 16, 1995

ANOTHER DEADLINE MISSED IN WTO SUCCESSION PROCESS

Geneva 15 Feb (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- In what has been a constant element over the last eight years and more, trade negotiators at the World Trade Organization missed one more deadline.

In December, and early in January, they set themselves a 15 February deadline to complete the process of consultations and agree by consensus on the choice of a successor to WTO Director-General Peter Sutherland.

Sutherland, whose term and 'contract' at the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1947 is due to run till July (a contract term fixed in July 1993 on the basis of the WTO's entry into force on 1 July 1995), was named as the first Director-General of WTO in terms of Art XVI:2, which provides that the Director-General of GATT 1947 will be the WTO Director-General until such time as the WTO Ministerial Conference appoints a D.G.

But with all the three candidates (and their backers) so far remaining rigid in their positions, the hope of a new round of consultations and consensus choice by 15 February has not materialised.

On Wednesday, the Chairman of the WTO General Council, Amb. Kesavapani of Singapore, assisted by former Chairman of CPs of the GATT 1947 (and currently a GATT official heading the WTO's Textile Monitoring Body) Andras Szepesi began meeting individual members of the WTO and the GATT 1947 cps to sound their positions, and appealing to all for flexibility for a consensus.

Kim Chul-Su of South Korea, Renato Ruggiero of Italy and Carlos Salinas de Gortari from Mexico are contending for the WTO job and have regional backing, with some outside backing apparently also for Kim and Ruggiero. Other outsiders have floated themselves, but have not caught on.

The EU has been arguing that Ruggiero has majority support of the GATT-1947 contracting parties and the others should withdraw to enable Ruggiero's consensus decision -- a view about consensus decision that others don't accept, neither the candidates nor their principal backers.

It was originally thought last week that Kesavapani's "consultations" will be confined to the WTO's 76 members -- since the succession to Sutherland is for the post of the head of the WTO which has already entered into force and the transition provision (for GATT 1947 head to also act as head of WTO) cannot be invoked more than once.

But the EU has the feeling that if the choice is widened to include the entire 1947 GATT cps, its candidate would be shown to have a wider backing and others would withdraw.

Presumably in deference to this, the Kesavapani's consultations are being widened. Even those trade officials who don't agree with this view of the WTO's Art XVI:2 -- in agreeing to the co-existence of GATT 1947 and the WTO for one year, the WTO members have stipulated that the contractual rights and obligations among WTO members is only to the WTO -- don't see any wider 'consultations' making any difference.

As one trade observer put it, Kesavapani can consult anyone to see what would help a consensus - he could even consult media personnel (some sections of media having been engaged in promoting some other outsiders), but the crux of the matter is need for a 'consensus-decision' of WTO members. The key to a consensus decision lies with the US which is backing Salinas against Ruggiero and Kim

So long as the US and/or other principal trading nations don't change their views about particular candidates and back Ruggiero, no amount of EU claims of the latter's majority support would matter.

Some EU trade officials seem to feel that just as the US first strenuously opposed the choice of Singapore as the site of the first WTO Ministerial Conference, because of Singapore's corporal punishment of a young American for vandalism, but ultimately refrained from blocking a consensus, the US would again quietly change its backing of Salinas (and thus persuade Japan and others to pressure Kim also to withdraw) and open the way for Ruggiero's election.

But it is not all certain that this can in fact come about, and that over the next couple of weeks.