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TWN
Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Mar24/14) Geneva, 21 Mar (D. Ravi Kanth) — A major developing country is understood to have blocked the nomination of Thailand’s trade envoy, Ambassador Pimchanok Pitfield, as the chair of the Council for Trade in Services, in the draft slate of chairs circulated by the WTO’s General Council chair, said people familiar with the development. At the failed WTO’s 13th ministerial conference (MC13) in Abu Dhabi early this month, India boycotted the small group meetings on agriculture due to her presence and later, New Delhi apparently lodged a major complaint against her to the Thai government following her alleged harsh remarks against India. Though there were stories in the Indian media that Ambassador Pitfield was recalled by her government, it now seems that those news stories were incorrect. If anything, Ambassador Pitfield has now been nominated to chair the Services Council, instead of the TRIPS Council. In an “urgent” communication sent to members on 20 March, the General Council chair, Ambassador Athaliah Lesiba Molokomme of Botswana, informed that she “received regrettably one objection on 18 March on the draft slate which was considered stabilized at the informal General Council meeting on 12 January. The objection relates to the CTS (Council for Trade in Services) candidate.” She said that “since there appears to be consensus on the slate of names barring the CTS nomination, I propose that at the forthcoming meeting (21 March), the General Council take note of the consensus on the slate of names for the appointment of officers to WTO bodies for 2024 – on the understanding that consultations on a candidate for the CTS chair will continue immediately after the General Council meeting under the lead of my successor Petter Olberg (of Norway), with a view to filling this vacancy as rapidly as possible after the General Council meeting.” SLATE OF CHAIRS The proposed slate of new chairs for the WTO bodies are as follows: 1. General Council: Ambassador Petter Olberg of Norway. 2. Dispute Settlement Body: Ambassador Saqer Abdullah Almoqbel of Saudi Arabia. 3. Trade Policy Review Body: Ambassador Adamu Mohammed Abdulhamid of Nigeria. 4. Council for Trade in Goods: Ambassador Clare Kelly of New Zealand. 5. Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights: Ambassador Sofia Boz Martinez of Chile (one of the leading proponents of the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement); 6. Committee on Trade and Development: Ambassador Ram Prasad Subedi of Nepal. 7. Committee on Balance of Payments Restrictions: Ambassador Clara Manuela da Luz Delgado of Cabo Verde. 8. Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration: Ambassador Jose R Sanchez-Fung of the Dominican Republic. 9. Committee on Trade and Environment: Ambassador Erwin Bollinger of Switzerland. 10. Committee on Regional Trade Agreements: Ambassador Salomon Eheth of Cameroon. 11. Working Group on Trade and Finance: Ambassador Caroline Bwanali-Mussa of Malawi. 12. Working Group on Trade and Transfer of Technology: Ambassador Raimondas Alisauskas of Lithuania. The above slate of names of the chairs of various WTO bodies suggests that there may not be any changes in the chairs of the agriculture negotiations headed by Ambassador Alparslan Acarsoy of Turkiye, and the Doha fisheries subsidies negotiations headed by Ambassador Einar Gunnarsson of Iceland. Normally, after the failed ministerial meeting on agriculture and fisheries subsidies, it is the past practice of relieving the two chairs to create a new impetus to advance the negotiations, said people familiar with the development. +
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