. /.RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/GC/26
23 July 1999
(99-3106)
GENERAL COUNCIL
Appointment of the next Director-General
Introductory Statement by Ambassador Ali Mchumo
Chairman of the General Council
The purpose of this meeting is to consider and adopt the Draft Decision on the Appointment
of the next Director-General contained in document WT/GC/W/258.  As you are aware this Decision
is based on a draft prepared by Bangladesh and Australia after extensive informal consultations withinterested delegations.  At the informal meeting of the General Council which I convened on Tuesday,
20 July delegations had a further opportunity to examine this text in detail.  At that meeting it became
apparent that Members had shown a considerable amount of flexibility to arrive at this compromise
proposal.  Although this proposal clearly is not full y satisfactory to all Members, there was a strong
convergence of views that this would be the only basis for resolving this question.  At the conclusionof the meeting I stressed that any efforts to intr oduce substantial changes to this proposal would alter
the delicate balance which had been achieved and seriously jeopardize any possibility of reaching a
conclusion within the immediate future.
In order to ensure a more orderly proceeding this morning I propose that all statements made
at the informal meeting on Tuesday, 20 July concerning the Appointment of the next Director-General
be recorded in the minutes of today's meeting so th at the views expressed need not be repeated for the
record.  Delegations are invited to contact the Secretariat if they have written texts that can be used in
the minutes.  Consequently, all the views that have been expressed will be on record and may be read
in conjunction with the Decision.
Having said that, however, I wish to stress myself, for the record, certain important aspects of
this text.
First, it is clearly stated in the final operative paragraph that this decision shall not constitute a
precedent for future appointments of Directors-General whose term will be of 4 years.  It is further
recognized that a comprehensive set of rules and procedures for future appointments will beelaborated and adopted by the General Council no later than the end of September 2000, which would
aim to improve and strengthen the current rules and procedures for appointment of Directors-General.
It was also suggested that should Dr. Supachai not be available for the second term, a Director-
General from a developing country should be appointed in his place.
Second, I also wish to refer to the preceding operative paragraph, concerning the appointment
of Deputy Directors-General.  A number of divergent views were expressed at the Informal Meeting
about this paragraph, and of course those views will now be put on the record.  I also took careful note
of them, in particular the strong concern expressed by some delegations as to the implications of the
reference to "geographical balance".  I should make it clear that in my understanding this expression
is in no way intended to imply that the number of  Deputy Director-General posts should be increased.
However, the decision makes it clear that the Director-General will appoint his deputies inWT/GC/26
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consultation with Members.  As I stated at the Informal Meeting, I intend to resume as soon as
possible after the summer break the consultations which were suspended nearly a year ago on the
question of the number of Deputy Director-General posts.  These consultations will also provide an
opportunity for delegations to elaborate their views on other aspects of the matter, which I am sure
will be helpful to the Director-General in this resp ect.  It should therefore be clearly understood that
the elements included in the penultimate paragraph of  this decision must be read in the light of the
consultations we shall hold in September.
I therefore urge delegations to show the same spirit of flexibility with which they approached
this proposal in the earlier informal consultations and to enable us to take a decision which will open
the way for the General Council to move forward on this question today.
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