Although Mr. Moore said he would like to do more, many developing countries fear that a fully accessible W.T.O. would leave them vulnerable to pressure from home-based interest groups. There are also questions about Mr. Moore's leadership abilities, fueled in part by controversy earlier this year over the makeup of the W.T.O. secretariat. A plan floated by the director general's inner circle to ease out some of the European personnel, who dominate the administrative staff, and replace them with people who better reflect the W.T.O.'s diverse membership was greeted with fury, especially when European governments learned they would probably be asked to pay for the reorganization. The plan was quickly shelved. Inside the organization's imposing headquarters building, morale is still low.
Employees complain that their work is increasingly hamstrung by a static budget.
The budget is tightly tied to a complex formula involving inflation rates, including that of the biggest donor country, the United States, which contributes nearly 16 percent of the budget. But the biggest contributors, which also include Canada, Japan and Germany, are likely to push for something more modest. Some critics say Mr. Moore has paid too much attention to developing countries. He has, for instance, traveled to Africa half a dozen times. Some of his initiatives for the least- developed countries, including a program for technical assistance in trade matters, have not won support from the biggest trading powers.