Former European Union trade commissioner Pascal Lamy of France speaks during a news conference in Geneva in this January 26, file photo. Lamy has been nominated by a special selection panel to be the next head of the World Trade Organisation. - REUTERS
GENEVA (Reuters):
FRANCE'S PASCAL Lamy will today be handed the tough task of leading the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a body he once dubbed 'medieval', as it faces some of the most daunting challenges of its 10-year life.
His most pressing assignment will be to help guide the WTO to success at a conference in Hong Kong in December, when trade ministers are scheduled to approve a draft deal on lowering barriers to business across the global economy.
But also looming large is how to handle the growing trade power of China, displayed most recently in its surging clothes and textile exports, which are threatening to unleash a wave of protectionist measures in rival countries, both rich and poor.
"There is no doubt that it is a difficult job. He has got a double-edged knife hanging over him," said trade analyst David Woods, referring to the Chinese dilemma and the trade round.
With no other candidates left in the running, the WTO's executive General Council will approve the decision of a special selection committee to recommend the former European Union trade commissioner for the top job in world trade.
Lamy, a French socialist who has promised to act as "honest broker" between the 148 members of the Geneva-based body, will take over from Thailand's Supachai Panitchpakdi on September 1.
He must also handle mounting tensions between the European Union and the United States, the world's two economic superpowers, over subsidies to their main plane makers, which could trigger the biggest trade row ever.
"Lamy is going to need to be very clever and very patient," Woods added.
No one doubts the intellectual credentials of Lamy, 58, who was cabinet chief for former EU president Jacques Delors and director-general of French bank Credit Lyonnais before serving as EU trade chief from 1999 until late 2004.
HAVE TO ADAPT
But the WTO prides itself on being an organisation run by member states, and it allows little executive power to its chief, something which a person used to giving orders may find frustrating, some observers say.
It was the difficulty of getting members to agree on anything which prompted the 'medieval' jibe from Lamy following the failure of a ministerial conference in Mexico in 2003.
"He is going to have to adapt and to become a leader of a different sort," said former Canadian trade envoy to the WTO John Weekes.
Lamy is clear on how he sees his new role, describing the director-general of the body that sets the rules of world trade as a "a manager, an advocate (and) an honest-broker".
The Frenchman won the job ahead of three candidates from developing countries by appealing to the WTO's poorest as well as its richest states.
His call while still EU trade chief for the so-called Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to be freed from any obligation to open their own markets in the Doha Round of free trade talks to win access to the markets of others gained him many votes.
In declaring his WTO candidacy last December, Lamy proclaimed "the priority must be to re-balance the international trading system in favour of developing countries".
But winning a draft deal in Hong Kong, which would clear the way for the trade round to be finalised in 2006, is a tall order, particularly if relations between the major trade powers, including China, deteriorate.
