7:52 AM Apr 25, 1997

WTO HEAD TO REPORT ON FUNCTIONING OF SECRETARIAT

Geneva 24 Apr (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- The Director-General of the World Trade Organization is to prepare and present a report early in October, analysing the functioning of the WTO secretariat.

Pending the report, and decisions about the secretariat, including the number of deputy directors-general, the General Council of the WTO, after an hour-long discussion on 'institutional issues', agreed Thursday to the extension of the contracts of the present four deputies for two years, until May 1999.

The old GATT had two deputy directors-general, and with the Europeans (a Britisher in the early stage, followed by two Swiss nationals) having had a monopoly-hold on the top post, one of the two deputies jobs went to an American, and the second to an Indian national (from within the secretariat).

In 1993, after Peter Sutherland was appointed to head the old GATT and helped the conclusion of the Uruguay Round, the number of DDGs was increased to three - with the avowed aim of strengthening the research capabilities -- and that post went to a Latin American (Mexican).

When Mr. Ruggiero was finally named to be the WTO Director-General, the consensus choice was made possible when his rival for the post, from South Korea, was persuaded to withdraw and accept a fourth post of Deputy Director-General.

Within the secretariat itself, there has long been a grievance among developing countries and others, that the staffing, and particularly at senior policy and director levels, is from mainly Europe and North America, and within them the anglo-saxon world, and a particular dominant economic/trade policy school.

Consciously or unconsciously, this is reflected in the views and advices emanating from the secretariat (which under the WTO agreement does not have the same role or status of secretariats of the UN system organizations, but can only undertake work specifically authorised by the WTO intergovernmental process).

The institutional debate, as in other organizations, has become engulfed in this, but the wider questions and public interest often submerged in the attempts of countries and delegations to get staff positions filled by their nationals.

Related to this are budget and staff questions, including the attempts of the WTO secretariat staff, to use the fact of the WTO not having formal relationship with the United Nations, to delink the staff conditions of service and salaries and allowances from that of the UN system, and gradually equate these to that of the Bretton Woods institutions and their affluent life styles and emoluments.

But the WTO budget is met out of contributions of members -- unlike the Bretton Woods institutions whose income comes from the interest and service fees on loans to the developing world and now the transition economies (who bear all the risks) as well as by short-term 'investments' in the market of funds raised by governmental guarantees, but which is beyond their actual liquidity needs.

The fact that any increased appropriations to the WTO could become an issue in their parliaments has made many developing, and even more developed countries like Germany and the US, sensitive and opposed, and this has now become part of the institutional debate and the non-transparent consultation processes of the WTO.

At the General Council Thursday, according to briefing provided by the WTO spokesman, a number of delegates reportedly argued that the issue should go beyond the one of the number of DDGs and focus on the functioning of the secretariat itself, and its more efficient functioning and reflecting the different needs.

Pakistan wanted change in the recruitment system to take account of and reflect geographical balance.

Pakistan also wanted more formal and informal meetings of the General Council providing some scope for discussions and debate. There should also be more transparency in the WTO General Council and it should be able to debate issues -- rather than the current practice where things are settled before hand in private meetings.

Trinidad and Tobago and Colombia supported this view, while India, Korea and Mexico suggested that no decisions be taken now, and that the Director-General's report should be the basis for further discussions.