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WTO chief warns trade round deadline under threat

World Trade Organisation chief Mike Moore warned on Tuesday that squabbles over key posts could prevent a new round of global open trade negotiations, due to start next week, from finishing in three years as scheduled.

Moore issued his statement as envoys from developed and a range of poorer countries appeared deadlocked over whether to appoint Moore himself to oversee the start of the talks or give the job to an ambassador who would change every year.

Delegations from the 144 WTO member countries are due to meet on January 28 to set up a Trade Negotiating Committee to steer the negotiations, agreed at a ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar, last November.

In his statement, issued on the WTO website, Moore said it was vital that the TNC meeting -- effectively the first session of what has been dubbed the "Doha Round" -- should get the negotiations off to a good start.

If this were achieved, he said, the January 1, 2005 deadline set by ministers for completing the round could be met.

"But delays at the beginning over process and procedures will make it very difficult to carry out the wishes of ministers," he added.

Among aims of the round, the ninth since 1947, are slashing tariffs on industrial goods, opening up farm trade by reducing subsidies that give some countries advantages on global markets, and helping poorer nations integrate into the world economy.

But euphoria over the accord in Doha, following the collapse of an earlier effort in Seattle in December 1999 to launch new negotiations, has begun to dissipate in Geneva amid arguments over how the talks should be run.

CHINA JOINS IN

Most African countries and others in Central America and the Caribbean argue that the round should be driven by WTO members -- and that therefore it should be chaired, probably on a rotating basis, by a Geneva ambassador.

The outspoken envoy of the Dominican Republic, Federico Cuello Camilo, said on Tuesday that if the WTO director-general ran the negotiations it would give too high a profile to the body's secretariat, which he said had other jobs to do.

The European Union, the United States, Canada and especially Japan want the TNC to be chaired by the director-general -- as earlier rounds were chaired by the head of the old GATT which was absorbed into the WTO in 1995 -- to ensure continuity.

China, which entered the trade body on December 11, has surprised many richer powers by coming down on the side of a group of poorer countries, which includes Pakistan and Tanzania as well as the Dominican Republic, on the issue.

"Perhaps the Chinese want to show from the start that they will champion the cause of the least-developed countries," said one European envoy. "But they also clearly feel that the secretariat's role should be kept at minimum."

The situation is complicated by the fact that Moore will be replaced on September 1 this year by Thailand's former deputy prime minister Supachai Panitchpakdi, who was backed by many poorer countries in a WTO leadership fight three years ago.

Diplomats say Supachai has left no doubt that he favours the TNC chairmanship should go to Moore and then to him, enabling him to hopefully steer the round to success in just under three years time.

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