Tim Groser out of the WTO race; Plan B getting TPP done and more

Trade Minister Tim Groser will be focused on Plan B: Getting TPP in place after his disappointment in being dropped from the race for the director-general’s role at the World Trade Organisation.

Impeccable sources confirmed to www.newzealandinc.com that Groser has been told he will not go through to the final selection round for the WTO top job.

The WTO selection panel overnight asked Groser, Indonesia’s Mari Pangestu and South Korea’s Taeho Bark to withdraw from the race following their failure to secure enough preferences from the  159 WTO member states to go through to the final round. The WTO is expected to make an official announcement later today confirming Brazil’s Roberto Azevedo and Mexico’s Herminio Blanco  as the prime candidates but Geneva-based trade reporters winkled out the news first.

The WTO was established in 1995 to advance global trade talks to spur growth by opening markets and removing trade barriers, including subsidies, excessive taxes and regulations. The new Director-General faces the tough task of reviving the stalled Doha Round talks which are expected to boost global commerce and  economic development.

www.newzealandinc.com earlier reported the race appeared to be between Azevedo (the diplomats’ favorite), Groser and Pangestu. But Blanco emerged as the dark horse after a successful preference (vote) gathering swing through Africa – where African states were angered that candidates from that region were dropped after round one – and the decision by the EU to back both of the Latin American candidates for the final round.

So what do we know of  the two prime candidates?

The Observor said this of Azevedo:

Roberto Azevêdo, who has served as Brazil’s ambassador to the WTO since 2008, is a popular and charismatic figure in the Geneva headquarters, but he’s less well known in wider diplomatic circles. Azevêdo is the only candidate still in the running who has never held the post of trade minister. That has led some observers to wonder whether he has the kind of high-level political pull that might be needed to finalise a Doha agreement. But Brazil has a powerful presence at the WTO and Latin America has never been represented in the director general’s office

Global Post describes Azevedo as the favorite to succeed Frenchman Pascal Lamy at the helm of the World Trade Organization – a respected career diplomat with broad experience in international economic and trade issues. As Brazil’s WTO permanent representative since 2008, he has earned a reputation as an experienced and credible negotiator as well as a consensus-builder, diplomats say. Azevedo, now 55, was Brazil’s chief litigator in many key disputes at the WTO, serving on and chairing dispute-settlement panels. Azevedo, who joined Brazil’s foreign service in 1984, previously represented his country in the World Intellectual Property Organisation, the United Nations Council for Trade and Development and the International Telecommunications Union.Azevedo is fluent in the WTO’s three official languages: English, French and Spanish.

The dark horse in this race is Mexico’s Herminio Blanco.

Here’s what the Observor said:

Blanco, who served as Mexico’s trade minister from 1994 to 2000, brings an outsider’s experience to the race. He was Mexico’s lead negotiator on both the North American Free Trade Agreement and theUruguay round, the negotiations that led to the creation of the WTO in January 1995. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago, but has spent most of the decade working in the private sector. This has led some observers to wonder whether he has enough technical knowledge of the negotiations to be able to help bring the Doha round talks to a close. Plus, he will have to vie with Azevêdo of Brazil to win the votes of the WTO’s Latin American delegates. That could prove to be his undoing.