JOB/GC/235  
 
24 July 2020  
(20-5125) Page: 1/5 
General Council  Original: English  
 
 
GENERAL COUNCIL - 15, 16 AND 17 JULY 202 0 
APPOINTMENT OF THE N EXT DIRECTOR -GENERAL  - MEETING WITH THE CANDIDATES  
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PRESENTATION TO THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF T HE WORLD TRADE ORGAN IZATION BY 
MR ABDEL -HAMID MAMDO UH 
15 JULY 2020  
It is with a profound sense of honour, and pleasure, that I appear before you today.  
 
I came to this building 35 years ago, as a young negotiator fo r Egypt to the GATT. That was in 1985. 
We were preparing for the most ambitious reform project in the history of the multilateral trading 
system – the Uruguay Round – which lead to the creation of this organization.  
 
The memories of challenges, faced by a developing country negotiator, struggling with others to 
navigate a way forward, come rushing back to me, with many memories of how much can be 
achieved by having a common purpose and building trust around it.  
 
I then joined the GATT secretariat in 1990. F or 27 years, I have served the multilateral system, 
rather than my country. Throughout my career, all the way from the Uruguay Round, to the creation 
of the WTO, to the Doha Round, and to this very day. I have all along first and foremost served the 
Member s, and their pursuit of the common good. I have always had the collective interest of the 
Members and the common purpose of the system as my guiding stars for direction.  
 
The Members – and their interest – is at the heart of this organization. Unlike othe r multilateral 
institutions, the WTO is not an agency tasked to execute programs or field projects. It does not 
distribute funds or mobilise resources. Without the interest of its Members, there is nothing for the 
WTO and the secretariat – including the DG  – to uphold.  
 
In fact, without a common purpose, the organization is lost.  
 
You will hear from many that the WTO needs reform; or that the rulebook must be updated to be fit 
for the 21st century. Or that we need someone to bring us together again and fo r that, we need 
political leadership.  
 
I think no one will disagree with that.  
 
The truth is, that the consensus, our common purpose, has faded. One might say we are still in the 
same boat, but we are rowing in different directions. This will not hold. At some point, possibly very 
soon, if the situation is not corrected, the hull of t he boat will break under the tension of differences.  
 
I believe that this situation in the WTO calls for a different type of leadership.  
 
This is not a statement about previous DGs, for whom I have utmost respect and appreciation. They 
have all been my c olleagues and I learned a lot from them. This is rather a statement about the 
gravity of the current situation.  JOB/GC/235  
 
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I recogni ze that I am in many ways an atypical candidate for the Director -General post. Trade 
ministers and the Ambassadors know me as a probl em solver, their humble servant, and hopefully 
also their trusted friend, and the trusted person to go to for advice. This role continued and even 
grew after I left the WTO. They no longer seek the senior WTO Director but the trusted advisor.  
 
Some might a lso be aware that I have chosen not to serve as a cabinet minister in the past. This is 
indeed true – and I believe it is also one of my strengths as a facilitator.  
 
Indeed, the WTO needs political leadership. But political leadership is not always synony mous with 
ministerial leadership. A minister is, by definition, an "executive" that executes a policy agenda in 
the face of opposition and more often, in the face of other ministers in negotiations. The problem -
solving techniques used are always based on a  national position.  
 
On the other hand, a WTO DG is by definition "an honest broker" who must not have an agenda of 
his or her own, and instead guide the Members on board to "row in the same direction". The DG's 
role is that of the facilitator, capable of  solving complex negotiating problems with creative solutions.  
 
A DG must listen carefully to all Members. Must also be perceptive and insightful and must have the 
ability to sequence a way forward through analysis, creative options, and the aptitude to I MAGINE 
what a possible outcome might look like. Of course, the way forward must be Member driven but 
without proper navigation we will not find our way together.  
 
The DG must also steer the Members away from the rocky shores already encountered, of which 
there are many in our history. We simply do not have the luxury of time to waste on dead ends and 
repeating old mistakes.  
 
My view of the problem  
 
The critical importance of trade is now beyond debate, whether for growth, development, job 
creation, poverty  reduction or World Peace.  
 
And, remember, trade is no more about merchandise crossing borders. It's also about services and 
intellectual property.  
 
The establishment of the WTO was no doubt the biggest achievement of the 20th century in trade 
cooperation , crafted from history and lessons learned and political will for change. None of the 
candidates will ever question that statement. Nor will anyone doubt that we are today in an 
existential crisis. I urge the Members to ask why we are in this crisis.  
 
We must focus on the right questions to be able to see the way forward. For me, this should begin 
with how the WTO has fulfilled its functions. Also, how world trade has changed in the meantime. 
And finally, more importantly, what have we learned from the past 25 years.  
 
In my view, over the past quarter of a century, the WTO has suffered from a chronic imbalance 
across all its vital functions. That is, dispute settlement, negotiation, and the 
transparency/deliberative functions.  
 
In any legal system, ther e needs to be a balance between the "legislative" and the "judicial" 
functions. For the WTO, these are the negotiating and the dispute settlement functions. While dispute 
settlement gained strength due to the inherent automaticity of procedures, the negoti ating function 
has broken down. This created an unsustainable imbalance.  
 
At the same time, the international trade landscape has dramatically changed, and the WTO system 
has been unable to update its rule book. This caused unsustainable pressure on the di spute 
settlement function, which produced the current breakdown in the Appellate Body - as the saying 
goes; if you cannot negotiate, you litigate.  
 
The third vital function is what I would call the transparency and deliberative function. Notification 
requirements must be fulfilled, but they also need to feed into the deliberative processes that help 
to verify compliance with obligations and, ultimately avoid disputes. As in the past, deliberations 
should also address newly arising issues that inform the neg otiating agenda.  JOB/GC/235  
 
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Here, I would like to stress the critical interconnectedness between these three functions. It is like 
a tripod; it must stand on three legs with balanced weight distribution. The system was designed to 
function with that kind of balance.  That is why chronic imbalance is unsustainable.  
 
A deeper look into the root causes of this imbalance would reveal that there are three cross -cutting 
phenomena that hinder the functioning of the WTO: leadership deficit, increasing complexity of trade 
policy and negotiating issues, and a fading vision of the common purpose behind the system. Over 
time, these phenomena lead to the unsustainable imbalance across the vital functions.  
 
The universal disenchantment with the current situation must be turned into  a major effort to 
understand "WHY" this is happening, why we are where we are today so we can see where we want 
to go. I would help Members unpack the issues to provide collective clarity about why we are in the 
same boat but not rowing in the same direct ion. 
 
The world of trade has changed, and so have the dynamics within the Organization. Whereas the 
GATT started its journey in merchandise trade across borders, we have now expanded into trade in 
services and intellectual property. Today, the way we trade  links goods, services, ideas, capital, and 
regulation. That requires a comprehensive and coherent approach by the WTO that leads to a "deal" 
that is truly inclusive of all sectors and interests of Members.  
 
For example, I see the role that digitalisation  has played for many industries, across the economy 
with technology -driven business models. At the same time, I also see the rising tide of legitimate 
domestic regulation in areas like privacy, consumer protection and cybersecurity. The interface 
between t he two needs to be managed in ways similar to the approach that lead to the SPS and TBT 
Agreements.  
 
And to complete the picture of where we stand today, we must look at the COVID -19 pandemic crisis 
and make sure that we retain the lessons we are currently  learning. The world will need a strong 
and stable WTO to support the post crisis economic recovery.  
 
The way forward  
 
We all talk about REFORM and I believe it is the responsibility of the Director -General, to enable you 
in an inclusive way to have the ri ght "REFORM" discussion.  
 
We also need to be clear on the nature of reform. Reforming the WTO is different from reforming 
other organizations. It is not about reforming administrative structures or allocation of resources to 
projects and programs. It is ab out reforming the TREATY itself, the enforceable contract among the 
Members, which is the WTO.  
 
Well…...we know that this can happen only through negotiations among Members - an admittedly 
extremely complicated process.  
 
Reforms will not result from any decision taken by the Director -General.  
 
Guided by a common purpose, reform conversation must not simply aim to protect the WTO as it 
stands today, but rather to make sure it is fit for purpose, in today's world, for the n ext 25 years, 
and beyond.  
 
While ensuring that the fundamental principles of the WTO and its purpose are preserved, reform 
conversations should not be about the "future of the WTO" but about "the WTO of the future".  
 
Reform efforts must cut across all vita l functions, but there are urgent priorities. The breakdown in 
the negotiating function paralyzes the ability to move forward, and to correct inevitable problems. 
We must renew Members' ability to come around the table and engage in productive discussions 
about the challenging issues. Without this necessary engagement, it would be exceedingly difficult 
to get anything done.  
 
We also need to think of the negotiating agenda itself. The breakdown for the past 25 years leaves 
a backlog of negotiating files, sta rting with the Built in Agenda of Agriculture and Services which we 
started in 2000 and obviously never finished. Then came the DDA with other agenda items and we JOB/GC/235  
 
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  know where that stands today. More recently, other items have emerged as priorities for many 
Members.  
 
The reality here is that ISSUES will not go away. On the contrary, they will multiply. As global trade 
evolves with new business models and regulators responding in different directions, the demand for 
negotiations will only rise.  
 
For the imme diate future, we need to set clear priorities. MC12 is around the corner and it needs to 
be a turning point in the direction of the WTO and take it on a different path towards "positive 
territory". I believe we need to do two things: 1) agree on a reform a genda and 2) achieve concrete 
progress on issues currently under negotiation.  
 
On current negotiating subjects, fisheries subsidies come first as the one item expected to be 
concluded by the end of 2020. It is crucial for our future to have a successful c onclusion of the 
fisheries subsidies negotiations.  
 
There are also the Joint Statement Initiatives on e -commerce, domestic regulation in services, 
MSMEs and investment facilitation. These initiatives address pressing issues of importance to many 
Members an d pause new challenges.  
 
While these negotiating items are the ones currently "beeping on the radar screen", the reform 
agenda will no doubt identify additional items for negotiations.  
 
The backlog, including Doha issues is still there. You will recall, i n Nairobi, Ministers disagreed on 
the Doha framework as a basis for negotiations, but all agreed on the need to address DOHA ISSUES. 
Reviving the built -in agenda of agriculture and services must be a priority because WTO Members 
agreed on this, and it has not happened. Trade distorting subsidies, both agricultural and industrial, 
will also be a priority.  
 
None of this would be easily agreed upon for MC12, but we must mobilize our good will and faith to 
move forward.  
 
We must not allow our frustrations to l ead our thinking process. We should enable our ambitions 
and aspirations to take the front seat and think about "the WTO of the future".  
 
Frustrations are "rear -view mirror" images, aspirations are "windshield" view that looks at the road 
ahead.  
 
My 35 years of experience in the system started with the biggest reform project in its history – the 
Uruguay Round. Of course, the situation now is vastly different.  
 
Since then, global trade has transformed, and trading powers have evolved. The circumsta nces and 
dynamics have changed. But the skillset we require of the leadership: imaginative thinking, and the 
ability to come up with legally sound and enforceable solutions – remain the same.  
We can learn from the past, but I will ensure that we will not repeat it.  
 
I share the universal concern about the sense of urgency. MC12 is our next landmark and we must 
start preparation yesterday.  
 
I reiterate my utmost respect for previous DGs, all of whom were my colleagues. But the kind of 
leadership we need no w is different. This is not a statement about previous leaderships but about 
the unprecedented situation we face today.  
 
As I mentioned, the DG is not a typical "executive". His or her role in global trade and vis-à-vis 
Members is that of the HONEST BROKER  and FACILITATOR that promotes like -mindedness by 
suggesting ways forward and providing options for solving problems. To fulfil that role, he or she 
must have two legs to stand on:  
 
The first is authoritative knowledge of the system and long experience wit h its functioning, 
particularly negotiation. The WTO DG is perhaps the most technically and politically demanding 
position in the multilateral system.  
 JOB/GC/235  
 
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  The second is the trust of Members in his or her impartiality. The confidence in his or her character 
and sound judgement, particularly under the pressure of difficult negotiation, and absolute 
commitment to the neutral advancement of objective and collective interest.  
 
I aim to provide the kind of leadership that matches the gravity of the crisis.  
  
I will rely on my long and proven WTO management experience to make sure that the world class 
expertise that resides in the Secretariat is put at the disposal of Members to assist going forward.  
 
I will stand my ground on the gender balance amongst the DDGs and s enior members of the 
secretariat.  
 
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