./.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/GC(99)/ST/2
8 March 1999
(99-0909)
General Council
15 and 16 February 1999Original:  English
STATEMENT BY H.E. MR. ALI MCHUMO
ON BEING ELECTED CHAIRMAN OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL
May I first of all thank you very much Mr. Ch airman for inviting me to share with you this
podium as you wind up your mandate as Chairman of this august body, and let me say what an
excellent Chairman you have been and that it has been such a beneficial experience to be workingclosely with you in the last 12 months.
Allow me, Mr. Chairman to use this occasion to express my deep gratitude to all
distinguished delegations for their collective expression of confidence in me through their action of
electing me as the next Chairman of the General Council.  I also wish to thank all speakers who haveexpressed so many kind remarks about me.  I am deeply humbled and overwhelmed by this
unmistakable manifestation of support.  It is indeed a great honour for me personally to assume this
responsibility, but by electing me to this task, you, distinguished delegates, have not only honoured
me personally but you have also honoured my country Tanzania and the continent of Africa at large.
Indeed, by this act, you are sending the correct signals to the international trading community and tothose interested in the multilateral trading system that this Organization, the World Trade
Organization, belongs to all of us, the largest and the smallest Members, the most developed countries
and the least developed countries, spread over all the continents of the globe.  Obviously, this message
of inclusiveness goes a long way in improving the image of this Organization, an issue which we
discussed at length this morning.  Certainly, the equality of ownership of the WTO must of necessity
be manifested in the equality of participation in the affairs of the Organization, including taking up
leadership positions in its various bodies.  Of course, what remains yet to be achieved is the moremeaningful equality and inclusiveness whereby all countries will equally benefit from the multilateral
trading system, and, as many delegations said this morning, that must remain our main objective as
we strengthen and perfect the multilateral trading system as we enter the next millennium we are
about to start.
We are all aware of the enormous task ahead of us – a number of important issues discussed
in the Council today have been referred for further consultations urgently, not to speak of a large
number of issues left pending from previous meetings, and in the remarks on your personal
reflections, you have identified a number of important matters that need to be looked into and taken
up in the days ahead.  But above all, the most important matter on our laps is the preparation for thenext Ministerial conference to be held at the end of the year.  Although we have started well, thanks to
you Mr. Chairman and the supportive Secretariat under the able leadership of the Director-General
Renato Ruggiero, it is the end that will matter most, fo r, as they say, all is well that ends well.  To
secure that successful ending that we all desire, we shall need to conduct our deliberations in the spirit
of balance and mutual understanding and accommodation that has been the hallmark of thisOrganization.  As Chairman of this General Council, a body entrusted with the task of preparing for
the Third Ministerial Conference, I want to believe that I can count on the support of all delegations to
make that task easier for all of us.  In that regard, I am pleased to note that we have an excellent
Secretariat at our disposal and I am looking forward to working closely with it, and while he is still
with us, with Director-General Ruggiero himself who has been such an effective leader and manager.Today, it is your turn, John, to speak much of Director-General Ruggiero and time will come when IWT/GC(99)/ST/2
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shall have more to say about him, but let me say this today, that one of the enduring legacies that Mr.
Ruggiero will have left to the WTO and to us all is  such an excellent Secretariat.  Mr. Chairman, let
me also use this opportunity to congratulate my colleagues the Chairpersons of the subsidiary bodies
who have been elected with me.  It is an excellent team and I pledge to work with them very closely
in the busy days ahead of us.  On my part and with your support and that of the Secretariat, I shallendeavour to ensure that our Organization, in line with the rules and traditions guiding it, remains a
member-driven organization, not only in the way of conducting our deliberations, but also in the
substance of our decisions.
While we prepare ourselves for the Third Ministerial Conference, it is regrettable that there is
one major business that remains unfinished, and that is the election of a new Director-General.  While
we have started well in the process and thanks to you Mr. Chairman and our facilitators AmbassadorRossier and Ambassador (now Minister) Lafer, we are yet to get the end result, and I had hoped Mr.
Chairman, that by the time you would hand over  the Chair to me, we would have had the new
Director-General elected.  I am however encouraged with the news that there have been some positive
developments which will enable us to make progress and so it is my intention to carry forward the
process from where you left by undertaking immediate consultations on how we can best proceed onthis important matter.  I cannot over-emphasize the importance and urgency of getting this matter
resolved in the shortest time possible so as to faci litate our work in preparing for Seattle.  Again, I
shall count on the support and understanding of all delegations in resolving this matter soonest and in
so doing preserve the credibility of our Organization.
Let me conclude my remarks as I began.  That is to thank you Mr. Chairman for your
leadership and to thank all the distinguished delegations for their confidence in me.  To you John, I
want to repeat publicly what I have already told you privately, that I shall continue to rely on your
support and advice, taking advantage of your  immense knowledge and long experience of
GATT/WTO that you have accumulated over the years.  Indeed your thoughtful remarks you madetoday testify to this.  Indeed the many adulations and the expression of high personal qualities that
have been echoed by many delegations this afternoon make it clear that you are a very difficult
performer to succeed.  When the many speakers were heaping praise you clearly deserve, it dawned
on me that perhaps unwittingly, the speakers were also giving me a seminar on the kind of Chairman
they are demanding from your successor.  It is clearly a daunting standard you have set.  However, to
your credit, you have all along been encouraging me in taking up this position by your inspiring
counsel that I shall manage and "nobody succeeds like a successor".  Surely I have a difficultchallenge to prove you right.  In that regard, I shall also want to tap the experience of our mutual
friend and predecessor in the Chair, Ambassador Rossier.  Unfortunately, another wise man who
could also be a pillar of support, Ambassador (now Minister) Lafer will not be with us due to a call
for higher national duties, but I met him a few days ago and he assured of his support and blessing.
We were all pleased by his thoughtful gesture of being with us this afternoon in this room at thisimportant moment, and I want to thank him and wish him all the best in his new role in his country.
Once again Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you and to thank the distinguished delegates for your
support which has been evident now but which I will continue to need in the days ahead.
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