The incoming Director-General of the World Trade Organization is considering appointing a panel of eminent trade experts to formulate, outside the context of international meetings and negotiations, innovative policy directions for the global trade body.

In a new book published by U.N. University Press, The Role of the WTO and Global Governance, Supachai Panitchpakdi, who takes over as Director-General next year, also favors earlier de-restriction of WTO documents and greater involvement of the private sector and NGOs in WTO deliberations.

The proposed eminent persons group could “help us resolve some of the threatened divisions over the pending trade and non-trade issues facing the WTO at present," Supachai says, noting the precedent set in the 1980s by the Leutwiler group and its influence on the Uruguay round of trade negotiations.  

Supachai, currently Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce, says an imperative for the WTO is “to prove to the world that the rule-based multilateral trading system can contribute to reducing income inequality and yielding sustainable development."

He also calls for greater involvement of developing countries in the WTO’s work, stating that many countries feel increasingly marginalized from the mainstream of the globalizing world economy because most issues before the WTO have been steered by a handful of members.

ISBN 92-808-1055-3 2001, 308pp; Paper; US$24.95

Edited by Gary P. Sampson, UNU Institute of Advanced Studies Professor of International Economic Governance, the book is a compilation of essays by 14 experts, NGOs and policy-makers.  It was formally launched at a conference in Geneva May 5, co-sponsored by UNU and the Ford Foundation. 

In addition to Sampson and Supachai, book contributors participating in the conference included:

• Maria Livanos Cattaui, Secretary-General, International Chamber of Commerce

• Frank Loy, former Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs, USA

• Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General, U.N. Commission on Trade and Development

• Dr. Claude Martin, Director General, World Wildlife Fund

• Dr. James Orbinski, President, International Council of Médecins sans Frontières

• John W. Sewell, President, Overseas Development Council

• Martin Wolf, Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times.

Among the other conference participants:

• Mike Moore, Director-General, WTO

• Jan Pronk, Minister for Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, the Netherlands

• Hans van Ginkel, Rector, United Nations University

• John M. Weekes, former chairman, WTO General Council

• José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Chief Trade Advisor, Organization of American States

• Herminio Blanco Mendoza, Former Secretary of Trade and Industrial Development of Mexico

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