The Rushford Report - part II

The Rushford Report - Part II brilliantly summarizes the strengths and weakness of the nine candidates for the post of the WTO DG here.

I found this quite interesting in the context of the ability of the DG and the WTO Secretariat to move the multilateral negotiations forward:

" On Monday, I reported why veteran WTO watchers consider this election to be especially important for the venerable multilateral institution’s future, citing the prescient warning from economist Jagdish Bhagwati that the WTO is now in real “danger.” And I reported on the qualifications of three of the nine candidates who come from the Asia-Pacific: Tim Groser of New Zealand, Indonesia’s Mari Pangestu; and Taeho Bark, South Korea’s candidate. Today, the rest of the field. 

 Three come from Latin America, two from Africa, and one from the Middle East. Altogether, it’s a strong field — although it is not clear which of the nine would exercise truly strong leadership. Nor is it clear that the top political leaders in major world capitals really are focused on the importance of selecting such a leader. And as outgoing Director-General Lamy has learned, without that necessary backing, no WTO head, no matter how dedicated and energized, can stop the institutional drift."

Is it inevitable that the major trading powers need to recognize and get involved in the multilateral institution for it to succeed? It has been note that a lack of a candidate (except New Zealand) from the developed world (major trading countries) indicates a lack of interest in the institution's future? Is it reading to much? The next DG would perhaps need to take both the developed and developing worlds leaders together to achieve what multilateralism can really achieve. 

The Rushford Report on WTO elections

I found this interesting website by Greg Rushford called "The Rushford Report" which analyses the political underpinnings of many international economic law and policy developments. A great read!

The WTO DG's election is round the corner and many commentaries on the process and likely successor to Pascal Lamy have been written. I happened to find this piece (courtesy the IELP blog) titled "The WTO's "Dangerous" Election" (part 1 of a two-part series) on the WTO DG's election a storehouse of information written in an inimitable style (rarely found in literature related to international economic law and policy) on the candidates and the likely result of the DG election. Summarizing the nature of a WTO DG's election process well, it explains:

"Whatever they want, this WTO election sure is different than what many would consider a “normal” one. There won’t be public polls. No focus groups.  No campaign rallies. No television commercials. And there will never be a recorded vote. 

The candidates will present themselves to the WTO’s General Council in Geneva on Jan. 29, in public proceedings that will be broadcast on the Internet. They will take questions, drawn from a box at random. And then they will get on the road for the next couple months, making their cases to the usual suspects in various word capital cities: trade officials, political leaders, and — horrors, if the WTO’s pesky band of vociferous anti-trade activists gets wind of this! — even corporate lobbyists. Some of the latter, to be sure, will offer enlightened perspectives in the public interest of strengthening the WTO as an institution. Others will have parochial axes to grind. But all will know how to whisper in the ears of the mighty and good in world capital cities."

The next few months will see hectic "consensus" building over the future WTO chief. Considerations will range from qualifications to nationality of the candidates, including the political economy of trading relations. May the best candidate win.