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TWN Info
Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Mar21/11) Geneva, 8 Mar (D. Ravi Kanth) – The World Trade Organization’s director-general Ms Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has exhorted the Secretariat’s staff to produce results and overcome their innovation deficit in the work culture, said people familiar with the development. In her first address to the WTO Secretariat staff on 5 March, Ms Ngozi apparently said somewhat bluntly that officials at the WTO lack innovation and that they must focus on delivering results, said people familiar with her comments at the meeting. The DG apparently said that if the staff fails to deliver results, the organization will become irrelevant, insisting that she wants to open a line of communication with young people so that they can inject new ideas which could lead to concrete deliverables, said people familiar with her comments. At the meeting, she also indicated that she would not pay much attention to the hierarchy in the organization, suggesting that she could reach any official, said people familiar with her statement to the Staff Council. Ms Ngozi seemed concerned about the negative image and negative publicity about the WTO in the media and asked how it can be addressed, said people familiar with the development. Surprisingly, her remarks were not displayed in the press release posted on the WTO website on the DG’s activities in the first week after assuming office on 1 March. “TRUST DEFICIT” The DG’s remarks at the WTO apparently caused some confusion as well as de-moralization because the Secretariat staff have little role in delivering results in a member-driven and rules-based organization, said people, who asked not to be quoted. At a time when the WTO is plagued by a huge trust-deficit and systemic crises due to the unilateral actions and concerted moves by one member to paralyze the functioning of the two-stage dispute settlement system, the DG can only create confidence by abiding by the rules as set out in the Marrakesh Agreement, said people familiar with her remarks. Ms Ngozi’s remarks at the Staff Council and her controversial agenda that embraces the non-mandated Joint Statement Initiatives (JSIs) and plurilateral negotiations, as well as proposed disciplines on industrial subsidies to allegedly target China, appear to be inappropriate, said a trade envoy, who asked not to be quoted. Perhaps, it is important to acknowledge that the DG and the WTO Secretariat are bound by the rules which are clearly set out in paragraph 4 of Article VI of the Marrakesh Agreement, the trade envoy said. According to paragraph 4 of Article VI of the Marrakesh Agreement, the Secretariat’s role is clearly spelled out. Under the heading “The Secretariat”, the Marrakesh Agreement says in Article VI that: 1. There shall be a Secretariat of the WTO (hereinafter referred to as “the Secretariat”) headed by a Director- General. 2. The Ministerial Conference shall appoint the Director-General and adopt regulations setting out the powers, duties, conditions of service and term of office of the Director-General. 3. The Director-General shall appoint the members of the staff of the Secretariat and determine their duties and conditions of service in accordance with regulations adopted by the Ministerial Conference. 4. The responsibilities of the Director-General and of the staff of the Secretariat shall be exclusively international in character. In the discharge of their duties, the Director-General and the staff of the Secretariat shall not seek or accept instructions from any government or any other authority external to the WTO. They shall refrain from any action which might adversely reflect on their position as international officials. The Members of the WTO shall respect the international character of the responsibilities of the Director-General and of the staff of the Secretariat and shall not seek to influence them in the discharge of their duties. In this context, neither the DG, nor the Secretariat have any role other than acting as facilitators, without taking sides or promoting a one-sided agenda, said a trade envoy, who asked not to be quoted. For example, a major member apparently intervenes in the work of the Secretariat if it disagrees with their reports, said a former WTO official. Writing in the RSIS (S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies) Commentary – titled “A New WTO Chief: Director or General?”- Mr Evan Rogerson, a former WTO official and Chief of Staff to DG Renato Ruggiero, said “the basic point about the post of DG is that it has no formal power apart from heading the Secretariat.” “With its origins in the improvised arrangements of the GATT, the WTO has not managed to become a full-fledged international organization on the level of its Bretton Woods sisters, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.” Mr Rogerson argues that “member governments jealously protect the “member-driven” principle and push back at any suspicion of overreach by the Secretariat or its head,” suggesting that “in a far more favorable time for the WTO, DG Renato Ruggiero (1995-99) was rebuffed by members for attempting to call meetings that were seen as beyond his mandate.” “Unlike the European Commission,” writes Mr Rogerson, “the WTO Secretariat and its director-general have no power of initiative.” He says that “the reality of these limits contrasts strikingly with the myth of the WTO as a powerful and unaccountable body fostered by critics and by governments eager to offload their own responsibilities, like the Trump administration blaming the WTO for its China problem.” Mr Rogerson has pointed out that “the DG should be well placed to show the sort of leadership in defending the multilateral system that has been largely absent in its present crisis. The DG is the only person who can credibly claim to speak for the WTO as a whole, though always under the watchful eyes of member governments.” Lastly, “the DG has to strike a careful balance between the global face of the role and the need to cultivate the Geneva WTO ambassadors,” Mr Rogerson argued.
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