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TWN Info Service
on WTO and Trade Issues (Feb10/14) Canada's John Gero
expected to chair WTO General Council Geneva, 18 Feb (Kanaga Raja) -- Ambassador John Gero of Canada is expected to chair the General Council of the World Trade Organization (WTO) this year, according to trade diplomats. This emerged following an informal meeting of the General Council Wednesday at the level of heads of delegation, which was convened to take up the new slate of chairs of various WTO bodies reporting to the General Council, as well as negotiating bodies established under the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC). According to trade diplomats, the General Council informally approved the new slate of Chairs. Barring any last minute changes or hiccups, Members are expected to formally approve the new slate at a General Council meeting on 22 February. Ambassador Gero was the chair of the Dispute Settlement Body in 2009, and in accordance with past WTO practice, automatically takes over the chairmanship of the General Council this year. He replaces Ambassador
Mario Matus of According to trade
diplomats, the new chair of the Dispute Settlement Body will now be
Ambassador Yonov Frederick Agah of The Trade Policy Review
Body is expected to be chaired by Ambassador Bozkurt Aran of The Council for Trade
in Services is expected to be chaired by Ambassador Elin Johansen of
The TRIPS Council is expected to be chaired by Mr Martin Glass of Hong Kong-China. According to trade
diplomats, the Committee on Trade and Development is expected to be
chaired by According to trade diplomats, the chairs of the other WTO bodies reporting to the General Council are expected to be as follows: Committee on Balance-of-Payments Restrictions - Lithuania; Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration - Finland; Committee on Trade and Environment - Colombia; Committee on Regional Trade Agreements - Panama; Working Group on Trade, Debt and Finance - Paraguay; and Working Group on Trade and Transfer of Technology - Egypt. The chairs of the various negotiating bodies established under the TNC, which oversees the Doha Round of trade negotiations, is expected to remain unchanged, except for one position, trade diplomats said. The Special Session
of the TRIPS Council was temporarily chaired by Ambassador Karen Tan
of The Special Session of the TRIPS Council is now expected to be chaired by the Zambian ambassador to the WTO. Unlike the yearly terms
of chairs of the General Council bodies, the chairs of the negotiating
bodies under the TNC normally have terms that last from one Ministerial
Conference to the next. The last WTO Ministerial Conference was held
in The TNC is chaired by WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy. The Chair of the Negotiating
Group on Market Access (NAMA) remains unchanged as Ambassador Luzius
Wasescha of Ambassador Eduardo
Ernesto Sperisen-Yurt of The Special Session
of the Council for Trade in Services will continue to be chaired by
Ambassador Fernando de Mateo of Ambassador Walker will also chair the Sub-Committee on Cotton. Also unchanged will be the chairs of the Special Session of the Dispute Settlement Body, the Special Session of the Committee on Trade and Environment and the Special Session of the Committee on Trade and Development. The Negotiating Group
on Rules is currently being chaired by Ambassador Guillermo Valles
Galmes of According to trade diplomats, the Uruguayan envoy is expected to leave his post soon and the General Council Chair is undertaking consultations to find his replacement. +
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