GENEVA, Jan. 26 -- The four candidates to lead the World Trade Organization began their campaigns before the group's 148 member governments.
Each had an hour to sell himself during private sessions at the Geneva headquarters of the WTO, which sets the rules for global commerce.
Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi of Thailand ends his term Aug. 31. WTO members are to select his replacement by the end of June, possibly as soon as March.
The new director-general will lead efforts to negotiate a global trade liberalization agreement by 2006.
The candidates are Jaya Krishna Cuttaree, foreign affairs and trade minister of Mauritius; Carlos Perez del Castillo, Uruguay's former ambassador to the WTO who was chairman of the trade body's general council; Pascal Lamy of France, former trade chief of the European Union; and Luiz Felipe de Seixas Correa, Brazil's ambassador to the WTO.
"They need someone who has a track record of being a man who has built consensus, who brings parties together, can put creative proposals and who enjoys the trust and confidence of all members of the organization," Perez del Castillo said. "Very modestly, I think I fit that bill."
There is no vote. The director-general is picked by consensus after discussions among members -- in theory.
"I don't feel I'm fighting for a constituency," Lamy said. "I think the spirit of the procedure is consensus building and I will do that."
The last time the position was vacant, in 1999, a dispute between supporters of Supachai and New Zealand's Mike Moore left the WTO leaderless for four months. In a compromise, each man got a three-year term.
"We have learned the lessons of the past," Perez del Castillo said. "It would be very painful for the WTO if we got bogged down again."
Another leadership battle could hurt trade treaty talks, which began at a meeting of WTO members in Doha, Qatar, in 2001, but since have been intermittent.
Negotiations foundered at a meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in 2003 largely because of clashes between rich and poor nations over farm-trade concessions.
While governments last year agreed on a framework for further talks, progress has been limited. Negotiators hope to have a deal to present at a December meeting in Hong Kong.
Developing countries have increasingly flexed their muscle in the WTO, particularly since the collapse of the Cancun summit. But since poorer members have proposed three of the four candidates, they do not form a united front.
Perez del Castillo has said the job should go to either a Latin American or an African. He noted that no leader has come from either continent since the creation of the WTO a decade ago or since its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, began in 1948.
Seixas Correa has also consistently said the interests of developing countries are meant to be at the heart of the upcoming trade treaty.
"I believe the outcome of this process should be the selection of a candidate from a developing country," Seixas Correa said. "This in no way represents any sort of attitude or policy of North-South confrontation. I see it in terms of balance."
