---------------------------------------------------------- FREE for JOIN Indonesia Daily News Online via EMAIL: go to: http://www.indo-news.com/subscribe.html - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ---------------------------------------------------------- The Economist July 24 - 30, 1999 FINANCE AND ECONOMICS The WTO leadership Fudge First equal First to the plate HAVING trouble filling that top international post? Worried that unsuccessful candidates�or their sponsoring governments�will lose face? Try job-sharing. The European Central Bank has done it: its president, Wim Duisenberg, is supposed to resign half-way through his eight-year term to make way for Jean-Claude Trichet, a Frenchman. So has the European Parliament: its biggest political groups habitually divide the five-year tenure of the Parliament�s president into two. Even FIFA, the world football federation, has done it: the 2002 World Cup will have two hosts, Japan and South Korea. And this week, the World Trade Organisation joined the job-share club. Since its director-general, Renato Ruggiero departed on April 30th, the WTO�s 134 members have been unable to choose between Mike Moore, a former prime minister of New Zealand, and Supachai Panitchpakdi, a deputy prime minister of Thailand. So they have chosen both. On July 22nd the organisation blessed the deal, proposed by Bangladesh and brokered by Australia, giving each man a three-year term. Mr Moore will have first go. He is due to take office on September 1st. Nobody at WTO headquarters in Geneva considers the outcome anything but second-best. The director-general has to be chosen by consensus. But both candidates had similar levels of support: Mr Supachai had slightly more backers when Mr Ruggiero left, but Mr Moore�who enjoyed the indispensable backing of the United States�then nosed in front. Neither was prepared to quit the race. Pinch-hitter The longer the delay went on, the more desperate became the search for a solution, even though in theory the director-general has no power. He is merely the WTO�s chief civil servant. After all, it is governments�the WTO�s members�that make trade agreements. In practice, however, the director-general is a vital broker. Consider, for example, the crucial part played by Peter Sutherland, Mr Ruggiero�s predecessor and the last director-general of the GATT (forerunner of the WTO), in bringing the Uruguay round of trade talks to fruition in 1993. The task facing Mr Moore and Mr Supachai is to repeat Mr Sutherland�s triumph: a new trade round is due to be launched in Seattle in November. They will have their work cut out. Although a lot of technical preparation for the summit has been going on while WTO members have been bickering about the job, little has been done on a political level. The range of contentious issues to be discussed, from farm trade to the environment, is huge. Yet, says one Geneva diplomat, WTO members are as far apart as ever on almost every issue of substance. There are political battles to be fought outside the organisation as well as deals to be struck inside it. The enemies of freer trade are far more articulate and better organised than they were during the Uruguay round. They will be out in force in Seattle and throughout subsequent negotiations. It is just as well, perhaps, that Mr Moore should be batting first. Many politicians say they believe in free trade. Mr Moore, an impassioned public speaker, not only means it but sounds like it. This, and his trade-union origins, ought to make him a more convincing advocate than Mr Supachai, an academic and banker. The WTO�s members have decided that they will not allow the choice of any future director-general to turn into a similar fiasco. They have agreed that by next September they will have drawn up new rules, so that there is a procedure for breaking deadlock when consensus is impossible. Long before then, however, the WTO has some more job-filling to do. Mr Moore�s first task will be to select his deputies. Currently, there are four posts: one has been empty for a year; the other three deputies left with Mr Ruggiero. These are important jobs, because the deputy directors-general are charged with sounding out members� positions. Their absence has contributed to the sense of drift in the past few months. Even so, there is probably only enough work for two deputies. Unfortunately, Mr Moore is unlikely to be able to choose such a slim team. The agreement putting him in the post obliges him to observe an �equitable geographical balance�. He will also have to take into account the views of Mr Supachai, who will inherit the deputies. Hitherto, one has always been an American. The Europeans, who until now have had the top job, will surely want a deputy�s post to compensate. African countries think it high time they had a shout. Latin America will also have a claim. Other Asian countries will not necessarily be satisfied by Mr Supachai�s impending accession: he is not from the sub-continent, or from China, which may expect a job as big as its self-importance when it joins the organisation. If Mr Moore is saddled with fewer than four deputies, it will be a great surprise. And then, at last, he can get on with the job. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 23 Jul 1999 jam 09:53:18 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
