GC Chair recommends Azevedo of Brazil as next WTO D-G

Brazil’s ambassador to the WTO Roberto Azevedo will become the next head of the trade body after coming through a selection process helmed by the WTO General Council Chair.

by Kanaga Raja

GENEVA: The Chair of the WTO General Council has said that Ambassador Roberto Carvalho de Azevedo of Brazil is the candidate most likely to attract the consensus of WTO members.

Reporting on 8 May at an informal meeting of the General Council at the level of heads of delegation (HOD) on the outcome of the final round of consultations on the selection of the next WTO Director-General, both the Chair and the two facilitators in the process recommended that members appoint Azevedo at a General Council meeting to be held on 14 May. The term would be for a period of four years starting from 1 September 2013.

(The General Council has since formally approved by consensus, on 14 May, the recommendation to appoint Azevedo as the next Director-General.)

The outcome of the final round of consultations had earlier been privately conveyed on the evening of 7 May to the delegations of the two countries whose candidates figured in this round.

The process to select the replacement for Pascal Lamy when his second four-year term ends on 31 August, began nearly six months ago, with an unprecedented nine candidates vying for the post.

The process was conducted by a “troika” led by the General Council Chair, Ambassador Shahid Bashir of Pakistan, who was assisted by the Chair of the Dispute Settlement Body, Ambassador Jonathan Fried of Canada, and the Chair of the Trade Policy Review Body, Ambassador Joakim Reiter of Sweden, serving as facilitators.

Clear and unambiguous

In his report on the third and final round of consultations at the 8 May informal HOD meeting, Ambassador Bashir said that both he and the facilitators had conducted the consultations from 1 to 7 May, when each WTO member was asked to indicate their preference between the two remaining candidates, Azevedo and Herminio Blanco of Mexico. The Chair reported that all 159 members expressed their preferences.

Ambassador Bashir said that the results that flowed from the consultations in this round were clear and unambiguous. Members recognized that both candidates were highly qualified individuals equipped to lead the organization and, thus, both were held in very high respect.

As in the previous rounds, the Chair said that no negative preference was expressed by any member.

He said that “our assessment of the preferences provided to us during this third round of consultations is that the candidate from Brazil, Mr. Roberto Carvalho de Azevedo, is the candidate most likely of the two to attract consensus”, on the following basis: Azevedo carried the largest support by members in the final round and had consistently done so in each round; and he enjoyed support from members from all levels of development and from all geographic regions and had done so throughout the process.

The General Council Chair said that he intended to convene a special meeting of the General Council on 14 May, and that at that meeting, he, supported by the facilitators, shall submit the name of Azevedo as the candidate most likely to attract consensus and recommend his appointment by the General Council as the next Director-General of the WTO for a period of four years starting 1 September 2013.

According to trade officials, Mexico said its government expressed sincere thanks to all the governments that had supported Blanco’s candidacy at all stages of the process. Extending its government’s congratulations to Azevedo, Mexico said it was prepared to join the consensus behind Azevedo.

In a media briefing at the Brazilian mission here on 8 May afternoon, Azevedo said that “we come to this moment where the WTO is in a very critical stage”, adding that the negotiating pillar of the WTO is “completely stuck”.

He added that there is a clear paralysis in the system because the negotiations are avoiding the disciplines from being updated and closing the gap between the rules of the organization and the real world where businesses operate.

“We have a trade agenda that we have to broaden and tackle,” he said, adding that there are a large number of trade-related areas and issues that need to be evaluated and discussed at the WTO. “We’re not doing that, and that’s extremely worrisome, and we need to change this situation as quickly as we can.”

In his view, the way to do it is to ensure that the negotiations move, “and move as soon as we can”.

The multilateral trading system was created to be a forum for negotiations and discussions. “We cannot allow the system not to function in these two areas,” said Azevedo.

Access to medicines

Meanwhile, in a press release issued  on  8 May,  the   international  medical humanitarian organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) urged that access to medicines must become a priority.

“One of the new Director-General’s first jobs should be ensuring that affordable access to medicines for all WTO Member States is a key priority,” said Rohit Malpani, Director of Policy and Analysis for MSF’s Access Campaign.

It noted that Azevedo’s appointment comes as least-developed-country (LDC) member states have requested to remain exempt from implementing the WTO’s TRIPS Agreement on intellectual property rights until they are no longer classified as an LDC.

According to the MSF press release, the LDC request, submitted in November 2012, would allow these countries to avoid monopoly protection for medicines, diagnostics and medical devices, which is essential in enabling access to low-cost versions of these products.

LDCs also wish for an extension not to include a clause that would prevent them from being allowed to roll back any existing intellectual property (IP) rules.

However, said MSF, developed countries, including the United States and countries from the European Union, are resisting calls for an extension or to allow LDCs to roll back existing IP rules.

“Least-developed countries already face an uphill battle to keep epidemics such as TB and HIV under control,” said Jennifer Cohn, Medical Director for MSF’s Access Campaign.

“It is critical to ensure access to newer medicines for these countries, and asking them to apply stringent IP rules to the same level as developed countries would be catastrophic,” she warned. (SUNS7582)                      

Third World Economics, Issue No. 544/545, 1-31 May 2013, pp 12-13