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TWN Info
Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Sept20/17) Washington DC, 18 Sep (D. Ravi Kanth) – Egypt has called for “special reform” of the procedures of the selection process for the appointment of the WTO director-general, after its candidate Mr Abdulhameed Mamdouh along with Mr Tudor Ulianovschi from Moldova and Mr Jesus Seade Kuri from Mexico were eliminated from the first round of the DG race. At a heads of delegation (HoD) meeting on 18 September, the WTO General Council (GC) chair, Ambassador David Walker from New Zealand, announced the results of the first round of the DG selection process in which three candidates have been asked to withdraw from the field of eight candidates. The three candidates who lost out in the first round are Egypt’s Mr Abdulhameed Mamdouh along with Mr Tudor Ulianovschi from Moldova and Mr Jesus Seade Kuri from Mexico. Ambassador Walker informed members that the five remaining candidates – Ms Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from Nigeria, Ms Yoo Myung-hee from South Korea, Ms Amina Mohamed from Kenya, Mr Mohammad Maziad Al-Tuwaijri from Saudi Arabia, and Mr Liam Fox from the United Kingdom – will proceed to the second round of the selection process. The GC chair has been assisted by the chair of the Dispute Settlement Body Ambassador Dacio Castillo from Honduras and the chair of the Trade Policy Review Body, Amb. Harald Aspelund from Iceland. The chair said that the second round will commerce on 24 September and conclude on 6 October, suggesting that three candidates will be eliminated in the second round depending upon the level of geographical support. In the second round, members will each be asked to provide two preferences, the chair said, suggesting that negative preferences will not be accepted. The chair explained that the three candidates were asked to withdraw from the race as they were “least likely to attract consensus.” He suggested that “the objective is to identify, among the different preferences expressed by Delegations, those least likely to attract consensus, so that the General Council can narrow the field of candidates, as foreseen in the Procedures.” Citing the General Council decision of December 2002 on the procedures for the appointment of Directors- General, Ambassador Walker said that “as regards the breadth of support, we considered the distribution of preferences across geographic regions and among the categories of Members generally recognized in WTO provisions: that is, LDCs, developing countries and developed countries”. The GC chair said preferences expressed in the first round will not count in the second round, suggesting that all members will have to give their preferences all over again. During the interventions by the trade envoys of the countries sponsoring the three losing candidates, Egypt’s trade envoy Ambassador Youssef Alaa said that while their candidate Mr Abdulhameed Mamdouh is possessed with the best qualifications to serve the organization in these critical times, he could not cross the first round, said a trade envoy, who asked not to be quoted. Ambassador Alaa said that a “special reform” is needed in the procedures for the DG selection process to ensure that the candidate selected for the job is the best candidate. The Egyptian envoy hinted that things are not good with the way the selection process is being conducted, the trade envoy said. Mexico’s trade envoy Ambassador Angel Villalobos Rodriguez expressed regret that its candidate Mr Jesus Seade Kuri could not cross the first round, suggesting that the organization is facing an existential crisis. Moldova’s trade envoy Ms. Tatiana Molcean congratulated the five candidates who made it to the second round.
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