On 18 September the World Trade Organization (WTO) took another step towards selecting its next Director-General (DG) as the General Council Chair and his two co-facilitators in the selection process disclosed which of the eight candidates had secured the broadest and deepest support from the WTO membership and should consequently advance to the next stage of the process.
In consultations it was indicated that the five candidates who should advance are Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria, Yoo Myung-hee of the Republic of Korea, Amina C. Mohamed of Kenya, Mohammad Maziad Al-Tuwaijri of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Liam Fox of the United Kingdom (UK).
The second phase of consultations will begin on 24 September and run until 06 October. During this time, members will be asked in the confidential consultations to express two preferences to the facilitators with an eye to bringing the number of candidates from five to two. Following this process, the General Council Chair will call another Heads of Delegations meeting where the results will be announced to the WTO membership. The timetable for the third and final round of consultations will be announced at that time.
The ultimate objective of this measured and clearly defined process is to secure a consensus decision by members on the next Director-General.
The General Council agreed on 31 July that there would be three stages of consultations held over a two-month period commencing 07 September. During these two months the number of candidates would be reduced from eight (8) to five (5) and then two (2) before a consensus is reached on which of the candidates becomes the WTO's 7th Director-General.
Story by: Riaan de Lange