Geneva, 14 May (D. Ravi Kanth) – The World Trade Organization director-general Roberto Azevedo is expected to inform members Thursday that he would be relinquishing charge soon before completing his term of office on 31 August 2021, said sources familiar with the development. In an email sent to members on 13 May evening, the director-general informed that a heads of delegation (HoD) meeting will be convened at 4 pm on 14 May to discuss administrative issues. But the DG did not indicate in the email his plans to leave early from his post, said sources, who asked not to be quoted.
Azevedo has been recently hospitalized for a health problem but he has been regularly attending office for the past ten days, the sources said.
Also, it is unlikely that Azevedo will join Brazilian politics right now, the sources said.
The DG confirmed early Thursday morning that he will be leaving soon so as to hasten the selection process for the next DG without delay, said trade envoys, who asked not to be quoted.
In all probability, the DG intends to complete the selection process by end-September so that he can leave in October, said trade envoys, who asked not to be quoted.
Apparently, Azevedo felt that it is not proper for him to preside over the WTO’s 12th ministerial conference in June 2021 when a new DG would have been selected by then, trade envoys said.
Trade envoys said they were surprised when they received the telegram about the convening of the HoD meeting on administrative issues at this juncture, particularly a day before the virtual General Council meeting is scheduled to take place.
“We did not know why he is holding this meeting on administrative issues,” said a trade envoy, who asked not to be quoted.
According to unconfirmed reports, Azevedo is expected to take up a position at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington DC, while his spouse would take over as Brazil’s envoy to the US.
Azevedo took over as the WTO DG on 1 September 2013, three months before the WTO’s ninth ministerial meeting in Bali, Indonesia.
He replaced Pascal Lamy, the former European Union trade commissioner, who had served two terms during 2005-13.
Azevedo is the WTO’s sixth director-general after Peter Sutherland (1 July 1993-1 May 1995), Renato Ruggiero (1 May 1995-1 September 1999), Mike Moore (1 September 1999-1 September 2002), Supachai Panitchpakdi (1 September 2002-1 September 2005), Pascal Lamy and now Azevedo.
He repeatedly claimed credit for concluding what he called the first multilateral agreement on trade facilitation at the WTO, notwithstanding the fact that the Trade Facilitation Agreement was part of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA).
More disturbingly, it is on Azevedo’s watch that the Appellate Body (AB) has been put to bed, as he failed to persuade Washington not to adopt a unilateral position.
Publicly, he has never pointed a finger at Washington for having wrecked the AB through its sustained attempts to block the selection process for filling six vacancies at the AB or denying funds to the AB, said a trade envoy, who asked not to be quoted.
Ironically, Azevedo, when he was Brazil’s trade envoy in 2012, had remained sceptical about the possibility of harvesting the Trade Facilitation Agreement.
“For Brazil and many others, this (trade facilitation) is not a self-balancing issue,” Azevedo had said at the informal heads of delegation meeting of the General Council on 7 June 2012.
“Stand-alone outcomes for trade facilitation are simply not realistic,” he said. “If we want to advance in this, or in any other area actually, we must be sensitive to the need to also make progress in areas of interest to others.”
He led Brazil in a major cotton dispute against the US at the WTO. The WTO’s highest court, the Appellate Body, dealt a body blow in 2005 by ruling against Washington’s trade-distorting subsidies to cotton.
Surprisingly, after securing a major victory, Azevedo had settled for a framework agreement that let Washington off the hook.
The US bought its way out of this dispute, without having to reform its subsidies, by paying a lump sum of $300 million while Brazil forfeited $829 million in WTO-mandated sanctions against US goods and services.
After the Trade Facilitation Agreement was concluded, Azevedo rarely mentioned the ongoing DDA negotiations, nor the Doha Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) which he continues to chair even now.
Once the DDA negotiations were eclipsed by developed countries at the WTO’s tenth ministerial meeting in Nairobi in December 2015, Azevedo propagated about the plurilateral negotiations in electronic commerce, disciplines for MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises), domestic regulation in services, and trade and gender despite opposition from a large number of countries, said trade envoys.
– Third World Network
