With odds favouring a Brazilian, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) could have a person from a developing country as the next Director General (DG) when the results of a nine-way race will be declared towards the end of May, according to government officials. Candidates backed by their respective governments are making the rounds of national capitals to garner support.
Officially, India has not disclosed its stand. It maintained this position when Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff brought along her country’s nominee, Roberto Carvalho de Azevedo to the post, to the Fifth BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit last month in Durban. India had demurred at her suggestion of the BRICS formally backing Mr. de Azevedo by declaring that such a move could be premature.
Developed countries, though, have not given up. Given their economic clout in the form of aid packages and dominance of their corporates in many poorer countries, they can cajole and cut deals in favour of their candidate. Although 75 per cent of the candidates are from developing countries, the developed ones have already started sending coded signals about choosing one of their own — Tim Groser from New Zealand and Taeho Bark of South Korea.
They are doing this by announcing that the selection should be “merit-based”. This is a code for the West’s opposition to the developing countries’ demand for affirmative action at least at the WTO. South Korea, a developed country on the back of annual per capita income of $30,000, could also be a strong candidate if the Kiwi fails to get much support.
Aware of this drawback, Seoul’s campaign message says it has enough experience on both sides of the fence — it was a struggling, developing country once and is today almost in the ranks of the emerged ones — and could, therefore, serve as a bridge between the two worlds.
Pascal Lamy is the incumbent WTO DG who has served two four-year terms. In its nearly 20 years of existence, Supachai Panitchpakdi of Thailand has been the only DG from the developing world. His election was not only aimed to fulfil the developing countries’ desire to have more say at the global stage but to also mollify some traditional western allies in the developing world. They were upset after “White British Commonwealth’s” Mike Moore of New Zealand beat him in the 1999 elections, marked by back-stabbing and unkept promises.
The South Korean candidate is already facing questions. Others want Seoul to back down because South Korean Ban ki-Moon is the current United Nations (UN) Secretary General.
Similarly, Indonesia, a member of the 10-nation Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), is being told that Singapore, one of its group members, occupies the top slot at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap). Another Asean representative, a Thai, is the head of UN Council on Trade and Development (Unctad) though the Indonesian candidate Mari Elka Pangestu is rated as good and recently met External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid to press her case.
Africa is still undecided on whom to support — Alan John Kyerematen from Ghana or the well-regarded Amina Mohamed of Kenya? Similarly, there are three candidates from Latin America making it hard for the continent. The current assessment is that Mr. de Azevedo, the former Brazilian Permanent Representative at WTO, seems to be the front-runner. Jordan’s Ahmad Hindawi was the first to throw his hat in the ring but his campaign is now struggling.
Developing countries have been attempting to ease the stranglehold of the developed world over global governance and financial institutions — the Asian Development Bank boss is invariably from Japan and the Europeans and the Americans have divided top posts at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank among themselves. Officials, however, feel that there is “now an overall movement among developing countries for loosening the grip of the rich countries over such institutions, except the UN.”
