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New WTO head advocates `controlled' globalization

Pascal Lamy of France, formally appointed on Thursday to lead the World Trade Organization (WTO) at a crucial moment in its history, has had a long career as a backroom strategist and the EU's trade guru.

Building on five years inside the system as Europe's trade commissioner, Lamy, a fervent advocate of "controlled" globalization, had exuded confidence during the WTO leadership race.

His final opponent in the leadership contest, Carlos Perez del Castillo of Uruguay, an accomplished trade diplomat, bowed out earlier this month after Lamy came out on top in diplomats' search for a consensus candidate.

Perez del Castillo had championed the right of developing countries to head the WTO as a counterweight to European and US dominance of other international financial institutions.

But Lamy managed to seize the high ground despite his background as a product of France's administrative elite.

He portrayed himself as a bridge builder between industralized countries and the ever more influential developing nations in the 148 member WTO.

As the EU's trade commissioner from 1999 until last year, Lamy sided with developing countries by fighting to reduce agricultural export subsidies, even though his stance drew criticism from his native France.

But he baulked at withdrawing the "Singapore issues" -- further liberalization of investments, public procurement and competition policy -- from global trade talks even though developing countries firmly resisted them at the WTO's ill-fated ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in 2003.

The 58 year-old French socialist is now vowing to tackle troubled negotiations on a new round of trade liberalization from the moment he takes office on Sept. 1.

The negotiations, launched in Doha, Qatar, in 2001, are framed by a sluggish system he once dismissed as "medieval."

In Brussels, his former masters at the EU are in little doubt that he is the right choice.

"Pascal Lamy is, with his knowledge of trade matters, his international experience, his concern for development and his constant search for consensus, uniquely qualified to lead the WTO at this defining moment," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

Although he headed some of the EU's bruising trade battles with the US in recent years, the Frenchman also found supporters in the US establishment.

"It just may be that Mr. Lamy is the right man to persuade his fellow countrymen and other Europeans to liberalize their markets -- especially their politically sensitive agriculture markets," the Wall Street Journal commented recently.

Born near Paris on April 8, 1947, Lamy graduated from France's elite National School of Public Administration after attending top French politics and economics schools. He was an advisor to Jacques Delors in 1981 to 1983 when the latter was French economics minister, and an aide to former prime minister Pierre Mauroy in 1983 to 1984.

He followed Delors to the EU's executive Commission, acting behind the scenes as his chief of staff for 10 years, then joined the management of the French bank Credit Lyonnais in 1994 to 1999.
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