Blanco and Azevedo, in final sprint for the WTO finish line.
The next head of the World Trade Organisation will be either Mexico’s Herminio Blanco or Brazil’s Roberto Azevedo, guaranteeing a Latin American nation will hold the top job at the global trade body for the first time.
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Blanco and Azevedo emerged as the only candidates remaining after the second of three rounds of competition to succeed Pascal Lamy on September 1, a diplomatic source said.
The other candidates were asked to withdraw from the race after not garnering sufficient support from the WTO’s 159 members, the source said.
The candidates were told of the results in a confidential meeting at the WTO’s headquarters where three senior ambassadors are presiding over a six-month process to pick a new WTO director general.
The winner, who will emerge by the end of May, faces a huge challenge of restoring confidence in the WTO’s ability to negotiate a global trade deal. The job confers little executive power, forcing the holder to rely on diplomacy, wit and persuasion.
Azevedo is Brazil’s ambassador to the WTO and Blanco is a veteran trade negotiator who led Mexico in the Nafta free trade talks.
For both men their current posts were seen as handicaps they had to overcome. Some trade diplomats saw Azevedo as too junior and lacking ministerial rank, while others frowned on Blanco’s closeness to free-trade deals outside the WTO.
But the final pairing will please many WTO members who had said the next head of the organisation should come from either Latin America or Africa. Some African nations may see the result as strengthening their own claim to the job next time around.
The nine-strong field at the start of the competition was the biggest in the WTO’s 18-year history. It also included three women for the first time, but all three are now out of the race.
Meanwhile, the senior diplomat leading the process said yesterday the race should be wrapped up by May 7.
Pakistan’s ambassador Shahid Bashir, who runs the WTO’s governing General Council, told a meeting of its 159 member states that he would launch a final round of talks next week.
“These consultations will begin on Wednesday afternoon, 1 May, and continue through midday, Tuesday 7 May,” Bashir said in an address to fellow ambassadors.
Officials said that a session of the general council was then likely to be held on May 8, allowing the name of the winner to be announced sooner than expected originally.
Bashir had previously said that he expected to have the name of the successor by May 31.
The post of leader of the WTO, tasked with reviving stalled global trade talks, is not formally elected.
Unlike similar organisations such as the various arms of the UN, whose chiefs are nominated, the WTO picks its leader based on a consensus system.
Bashir, with the support of other senior diplomats, has spent recent weeks sounding out members to assess which candidates were likely to muster the most support.
Those who fell at the first hurdle earlier this month were from Kenya, Ghana, Jordan and Costa Rica, while Indonesia, South Korea and New Zealand stumbled to make it to the final selection this week.
The WTO has been led by a developing country before, but never for a full term. An ugly battle in the 1999 race led to Thailand and New Zealand splitting the post, in the wake of Irish and Italian chiefs.
The WTO’s members set the rules of global commerce, and the Geneva-based organisation polices respect for the 159 nations’ commitments.
Created in 1995, the WTO aims to advance global trade negotiations in a drive to spur growth by opening markets and removing trade barriers, including subsidies, excessive taxes and regulations.
Its ‘Doha Round’ of talks was launched in 2001, with the stated goal of harnessing global commerce to develop poorer economies, but has faltered in the face of obstacles set in particular by China, the European Union, India and the US.
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