6:23 AM Mar 7, 1995

US TRADE OFFICIALS SOUNDING OUT ON WTO HEAD

Geneva 7 Mar (TWN) -- Officials from the US Trade Representative's office in Washington are in Geneva, trying to sound out delegations of other countries on a "new process" and a "new personality" to head the World Trade Organization in succession to Peter Sutherland.

Jeff Lang, Special Assistant to US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor and Ms. Dorothy Doskin in the USTR's office have come to Geneva in this quest, trade diplomats said.

Perhaps at this late stage the US may not want to do something on its own and looking for other support and candidacies, one of them said.

The two US trade officials from Washington would appear to have met the WTO head Peter Sutherland Monday, and have also met WTO General Council Chair, Amb. Kesavapani of Singapore and Andras Szepesi of Hungary (now a GATT official as Chairman of the WTO's Textile Monitoring Body, but assisting Kesavapani in the current process for consensus selection from among the two candidates remaining in the field -- Kim Chul-Su of Korea and Renato Ruggiero of Italy).

The visit of the US team comes even as the European Union candidate, Ruggiero, appears to be picking up support from the Latin American region where countries had been backing former Mexican President, Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

On Monday, the government of Brazil came out in Brasilia with the announcement that it was now switching its support to Ruggiero. Other Latin American diplomats said their own positions would become clearer over the next couple of days.

Kesavapani is due to meet with individual delegations 8-10 March to find out their preferences among the two candidates. Though originally expected to announce the outcome of the new head count on 13 or so, trade officials thought that this may not now be done in order to promote a consensus.

Trade diplomats from the EU and member countries in Geneva were confident that over the next few days Ruggiero will pick up more support and establish a long lead over his rival, Kim Chul-Su of Korea and that this will enable everyone to persuade Kim and Korea to withdraw the candidacy and ensure Ruggiero consensus election.

They said that even if the selection can't be decided before 15 March (when Sutherland is due to leave in accord with the term set in December), the EU is against Sutherland continuing beyond that date.

The EU now talks in terms of one of the deputy directors-general holding temporary charge for a short period or, citing the case of the OECD where the seniormost Representative took charge, of WTO General Council Chair, Amb. Kesavapani holding charge with the three deputy directors-general running the show.

These EU sources also said that there were mixed signals coming out of Washington and that, while the USTR seemed opposed to Ruggiero, others in the US administration were more favourable inclined and their views would perhaps prevail.

A Washington report in the Financial Times said the Clinton administration was opposed to Ruggiero because of his "more protectionist stance". The report also quoted a White House official (Bowman Cutter, deputy chief of the National Economic Council), as saying that someone from the 'emerging markets' in Latin America or Asia should head the WTO.

Geneva trade diplomats said Lang and his colleague now in Geneva have been sounding out other countries, particularly those from Asia so far supporting the candidacy of Kim, as well as others on their views (in the light of the Salinas withdrawal and new head count confined to the two remaining).

While sounding out others both on a new process and a new candidate to be selected by consensus, the US sides does not appear to have indicated whom it had in mind.

Many of the trade diplomats express in private their irritation over the way the process has been going on with the US unwilling or unable to state its own position and stand.

Presumably this has been conveyed to the US officials here too.

As one of them put it: "Time is running short and if the US is not prepared to accept Ruggiero who has the lead, it must come out in the open and say so, even at this late stage. The more diplomatic thing would have been for them to have told the EU at an early enough stage that it does not like the particular candidate, but they should tell others clearly now. However unpleasant, we can then atleast start looking for alternatives. But we can't prolong this process, and commit ourselves to any unknown candidate and a new process. We are already making the point to the public that the WTO does not need a head, soon we may succeed in telling the public that we don't even need a WTO."