Posted on 24-6-2002

New WTO Chief Talks To Indians
From oneworld.net

The incoming head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has revealed he has
plans for new rules to govern the activities of multinational corporations
in influencing international trade agreements. Speaking at the World
Development Movement's Annual Conference in central London, WTO Director
General Designate, Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi said he was planning: "to bring
in, to introduce, some sort of a code of conduct. Which is something that
I'm not getting support from countries around the world, particularly some
advanced countries, they see it that I'll be trying to intervene too much
into the corporate sector's movements. But what I'm trying to suggest is
that while we are trying to put up new regimes, new agreements, new rules
for countries to abide by, we don't seem to have any rules for the
multinationals and transnational corporations to go by."

He revealed his plans in response to a question from the audience asking
how he would resist the pressure from the corporate sector. Dr Supachai
said that he did feel the pressure and that the agreement on intellectual
property rights (TRIPS): "was one of the glaring examples of the pressure
coming from the corporate sector on governments that ultimately resulted in
some agreements being forced on countries that we have to try to prevent."
Dr Supachi said of his plans that: "I have made suggestions along this line
several times, that I would propose a sort of a framework, that I would try
to work with other organisations like the OECD - which is a neutral
institution - or the World Bank or the UN. They have their own codes of
conduct for some areas of transnationals, but I would deal with trade
areas. And so you'll be hearing more of this, but let me give you a warning
that I have got some comments on it, negative comments, that some countries
are not in agreement with this kind of effort."

Earlier at the same event Dr Supachai contradicted claims that developing
countries were the winners from the WTO negotiations in Doha last November:
"We need countries, particularly the advanced countries to realise that
development is not just a semantic, this is a discussion on substance. When
it comes to substance you need concession, you need sacrifices, and last
time maybe developing countries were asked to sacrifice themselves in Doha.
I hope that when it comes to the next Ministerial conference we will see
sacrifices coming from the advanced countries to make the round really a
development round."

Dr Supachai, who takes over from Mike Moore as WTO Director General in
September, also warned against measuring the success of a trade round
simply in terms of increased volume of trade: "with all the trade rounds
people like to quantify the trade rounds by saying there will be trillions
of US dollars of new trade volume being created…I'm trying to convince
people that when you talk about the so-called 'development angle' you don't
talk about the dollars and cents - the value of trade alone. You talk about
the real products, you talk about the real gains and you talk about
employment creation." Dr Supachai said that Prof Jan Tinbergen (the first
ever winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics) taught him the need for
"Looking beyond figures all the time. This is what I hope to bring with me
to Geneva to try to make people understand a sense of what they are
negotiating about. It is not only to create more trade volume. It is the
distribution of the trade volume, it's the quality of the trade volume that
we are talking about." Dr Supachai called for "special attention" to the
needs South Asia, the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa in trade
negotiations including technical assistance and capacity building. He also
hoped that Special and Differential treatment would be more extensively
covered: "Not only in terms of timeframe but maybe in terms of having more
to do with some policy interventions by some of those countries.
Interventions that might be seen to be probably contradicting or violating
some of the existing GATT rules."

Responding today Barry Coates, Director of the World Development Movement
said: "This is a step in the right direction. But any code of conduct needs
to be binding and fully enforceable, not voluntary. We also need parallel
measures in national capitals where much of the corporate influence over
trade policy takes place."

* Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi is the Director General-Designate of the WTO. He
is a former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce of Thailand. Dr
Supachai was the keynote speaker at the World Development Movement's annual
conference Whose Rules Rule? Trade, Debt and Corporate Power, held at the
Institute of Education in Central London on 8 June 2002.