twn @gn.UUCP 4:06 PM Feb 17, 1995

US UNDER PRESSURE TO COME CLEAN ON WTO HEAD

Geneva 17 Feb (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- "The ball is now in the American court and they have to indicate clearly whether the leading candidate among the three contesting for the top job at the WTO is acceptable to them or everyone is to be jettisoned for a fresh choice," a key trade diplomat said Friday about the search for a person to succeed Peter Sutherland as Director-General of the WTO.

The three candidates in the field are: Kim Chul-Su of South Korea, Renato Ruggiero of Italy and Carlos Salinas de Gortari of Mexico.

The Americans who publicly are continuing to back the former Mexican President for the post, the trade diplomat said, know that he is not "saleable" to the rest of the membership and they can longer hide behind the candidacy of Salinas or the 'regional backing' for him.

Either the Americans have to make up their mind and choose among the remaining two -- in effect choosing the EU backed Renato Ruggiero (who technically in earlier head counts had a majority, though made up only of the EU and the countries associated with it in various way) or indicate clearly that neither Ruggiero nor Kim is acceptable to them, and all must be jettisoned for a new choice.

Delegates to the World Trade Organization, the diplomat said, are fed up with the attitudes of the majors and the current deadlock in the consensus choice of a successor.

It has brought the trade organization into public ridicule -- as a place where negotiators keep on setting deadlines and missing them, waiting for word from the 'powerful' and their agendas.

While the normal work, at delegations level and in the inter-governmental process is moving, the sense of the WTO not able to find a personality to head the secretariat is creating an 'image problem' and delegates from the smaller countries resent it, the source said.

On Wednesday, the WTO General Council Chairman, Amb. Kesavapani of Singapore, began a new round of consultations with individual delegations to ascertain where they stand now in their preferences and the extent of flexibility in this. He is due to complete this process Friday evening.

Kesavapani has asked Hungarian Andras Szepesi -- who did the earlier round of consultations as Chairman of the Contracting Parties but is now a GATT official -- to assist him in the consultations to ensure some continuity and find any nuances or change in positions of the delegations.

In the earlier consultations, despite Szepesi's efforts to persuade delegations to be flexible and indicate their second preferences, the regional backing for the three has remained firm.

Before Kesavapani started the new round of consultations, several delegation sources said that after completing the consultations, they expected him to tell an informal heads of delegations meet about the extent of support for each candidate, and make recommendations on how to break the deadlock and make a consensus decision. They expect Kesavapani to do this around next mid-week.

After the two earlier rounds, the EU had been pressing Szepesi to make known the head-counts for each candidate. But this had been resisted by both Korea and Mexico, and by others too who saw this to be meaningless since decisions in any event would need consensus.

Mexico subsequently seemed less opposed.

But in a town where positions of delegations are always scrutinised to see the hidden agenda, it was not clear to others whether it was because Mexico thought that Salinas had overtaken Kim and a disclosure of strength would induce Kim to withdraw and his supporters throwing their preferences behind Salinas -- "as a candidate from developing country" -- or as a way for Mexico itself to back away from Salinas (whose candidacy had become domestically controversial because of the peso crisis) has not been clear to other diplomats.

Nor has the repeated public backing of Salinas by top US officials been taken at face value.

The support among many delegations for Kesavapani to come out, though not formally, with his assessment of support, is apparently based on the view that this would force others, particularly the majors, to reassess their positions.

Many developing countries would probably be happy if the deadlock results in Sutherland being asked to remain in office, but they don't want any ad hoc arrangements -- from month to month as now.

Many delegations know that when Sutherland (in mid-1993) agreed at the instance of the US and EU to seek the post and offer himself as a candidate, he wanted to come to the GATT only to complete the stalled negotiations. At that time, the then Chairman of the CPs (Amb. B.K.Zutshi of India) pointed out to him that if he were to come, and was to be chosen on this basis, and if the negotiations could not be completed, the GATT could be in greater trouble: they would have a failed negotiations and no GATT head either.

Sutherland saw the logic and agreed to be in office until the WTO enters into force. At that time it was thought this would be on 1 July 1995, and hence his contract was set till then, but renewable.

When he announced before Marrakesh and at Marrakesh that he did not want to continue, delegations took it as his final word, and no one tried to make him change his mind. No one thought either that this was a ploy to get his terms (in terms of the WTO secretariat or his own powers and initiatives). Rather the process of a hunt for successor began and when it was getting prolonged last December, he was asked to continue till 31 March -- with the EU reluctantly accepting it, since it saw his continuance as likely to come in the way of Ruggiero's choice.

Even now, Sutherland's public position is that he would like to leave at end of March.

Third World delegations say that if as they see the deadlock among the three contenders cannot be broken, Sutherland would be an obvious choice. But, say some of them, it must be for a fixed term of two years or so. Also most of them don't want to be caught in the position of having to go to him with a request and be put in the position of trying to meet any demands he might have (in terms of the powers or initiatives of the office and the secretariat).