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TWN Info
Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Sept20/02) Geneva, 31 Aug (D. Ravi Kanth) – The WTO General Council (GC) chair Ambassador David Walker from New Zealand on 28 August announced the logistical details for the selection of the next director-general of the organization beginning next week during which members’ choices among the eight candidates in the DG race will be evaluated. The eight candidates contesting for the WTO’s top job to replace DG Roberto Azevedo, who will step down from office to join PepsiCo Inc on 1 September, include Mr Jesus Seade Kuri from Mexico, Ms Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from Nigeria, Mr Abdulhameed Mamdouh from Egypt, Mr Tudor Ulianovschi from Moldova, Ms Yoo Myung-hee from South Korea, Ambassador Amina Mohamed from Kenya, Mr Mohammad Maziad Al-Tuwaijri from Saudi Arabia, and Mr Liam Fox from the United Kingdom. In his email sent to members on 28 August, Ambassador Walker informed that from 7 to 16 September 2020, “all delegations are invited to consult with me, as General Council Chair, assisted by the Chairs of the DSB [Dispute Settlement Body] and TPRB [Trade Policy Review Body] as Facilitators for up to 10 minutes each.” This will be the first of three rounds, the GC chair explained. The chair of the Dispute Settlement Body Ambassador Dacio Castillo from Honduras and the chair of the Trade Policy Review Body Ambassador Harald Aspelund from Iceland will act as facilitators in assisting Ambassador Walker during the selection process. Three out of the eight candidates in the fray will be asked to withdraw at the end of the first round, followed by three candidates in the second round. Two finalists will be left in the final third round. According to the GC chair, the selection process will be “consistent with the confidentiality of this process, and in line with past practice, the consultations will take place at the Centre William Rappard, with necessary adaptations for the COVID-19 health situation.” In the past, the confidentiality of the selection process has raised serious questions, with the former Brazilian candidate Ambassador Luiz Felipe de Seixas Correa in 2005 and Kenya’s Amina Mohamed in 2013 having questioned the selection process when they were eliminated in the first round. Ambassador Walker said that “the Chairs of the DSB, the TPRB and I will be consulting from dedicated rooms on the ground floor” while “Heads of Delegation will be invited to consult with us from an adjacent room, which will be equipped with a secure computer system. This equipment will be connected to us only.” “This area”, said Ambassador Walker, “will be exclusively dedicated to this process. Access will be overseen by a guard who will admit individual Heads of Delegation for their consultation. The room for Heads of Delegation will be sanitized after each consultation.”
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