WTO Chief Says Would Like to Oversee Round Launch

World Trade Organization Director-General Mike Moore said on Friday in Geneva he would like to see a new global round of liberalization talks launched during his term in office, which ends in August 2002.

But Moore told a year-end news conference he recognized that agreement on a round among the WTO's currently 140 members was still a long way off although many governments were showing "increasing flexibility" on the issue.

"I'd like to do that (oversee the round launching)," declared the former New Zealand prime minister, who is serving a three-year term and will be succeeded by Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Supachai Panitchpakdi.

"I do believe we can do most for most people around the world inside a round....It would bring benefits to our member countries and to the global economy as a whole," he said.

But all members of the WTO had "to see enough space and feel enough comfort" before they would be ready to sign up for a major negotiating effort that diplomats say could be expected to last at least three and probably more years.

Developing countries, who blocked efforts at a WTO ministerial meeting in Seattle last December to agree on a launch early this year, are still bitter over failure of the richer powers to relax some accords reached in the last round.

That effort, named after Uruguay which hosted the ministerial meeting of the old GATT trade body which launched it, lasted from 1986 to the end of 1993.

Over the past year, poorer countries who are finding it impossible to implement some of the agreements reached then in many areas including agriculture, health rules, subsidies and rules of origin, have been negotiating to achieve some leeway.

But a document summing up those talks issued on Friday left little doubt that scant movement had been shown by big powers like the United States and the European Union who want to stick to the original time-frames for implementation.

India's ambassador Srinavasan Narayanan told the WTO's ruling General Council discussing the problem on Thursday that the year of discussions had achieved "even less than I had expected," diplomats present said.

If no extension to the accords affecting emerging economies and the world's poorer states is agreed, they could eventually face challenge before the WTO's Dispute Settlement BigBody + and possible sanctions + for failing to observe trading rules.

But Moore said on Friday the agreement to at least continue discussions on implementation next year marked "modest progress."

"These are enormously difficult issues for all involved. It is very difficult for capitals to move," he declared.

The WTO chief indicated he hoped that there could be a shift during 2001 to make possible agreement on a round at the WTO's next ministerial meeting, to be held before the end of the year.

But ambassadors on Friday postponed to the New Year a decision on which of two likely candidate countries would host the gathering. The Gulf state of Qatar offered its capital Doha in Seattle, but recently Chile has shown interest.

For the previous three ministerial, there was only one candidate for host.

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