ASEAN backs Thai bid for WTO

Mon, 07 Sep 1998, 00:00 WIB | Source: DPA

BANGKOK (DPA): The Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) has agreed to support Thai Deputy Prime Minister Supachai
Panichpakdi's bid to become the next director-general of the
World Trade Organization (WTO), reports said Saturday.

ASEAN's endorsement of Supachai's candidacy was agreed at a
recent meeting of senior officials in Vietnam and will be
formally announced next week in Singapore, a Thai foreign
ministry spokesman said.

Supachai, a respected economist and former central banker who
is currently deputy prime minister and commerce minister,
submitted his candidacy to replace current WTO director-general
Renato Reggiero in Bangkok last month.

At the moment only Supachai and Canada's former commerce
minister John MacLaren are officially competing for the WTO
posting, which must be decided by consensus among the
organization's 132 member states by the end of this year.

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