Member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) started the process of choosing a new chief Tuesday with a hearing for African Union candidate Alan Kyerematen of Ghana, dpa reported. Developing countries have fielded most of the nine candidates seeking to replace French-born Director General Pascal Lamy, whose second term in office expires at the end of August. Kyerematen said he wanted to include businesses and civil society when it comes to lowering trade barriers, as they are directly affected by policies that make it hard to move goods and services. "Those are the ones that can really tell us what is necessary," said Kyerematen, a former trade minister and currently a senior official at the UN Economic Commission for Africa. Besides Kyerematen, there is another nominee from Africa, Amina Mohamed of Kenya, who currently acts as the deputy head of the UN Environment Programme. There are three Latin American hopefuls - Brazilian WTO envoy Roberto Carvalho de Azevedo, Costa Rican Trade Minister Anabel Gonzalez, and former Mexican trade minister Herminio Blanco. No African or Latin American has ever led the trade body, a statistic that could raise their chances this time round. The remaining candidates are: former Jordanian trade minister Ahmad Hindawi, Indonesian Tourism Minister Mari Pangestu, New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser, and his South Korean counterpart Bark Taeho. Economic heavyweights like the United States, the European Union or Japan have not declared their preference for any of the nine candidates at this early stage of the selection process.
