Thai activists reject U.S. call on WTO race
Thai activists reject U.S. call on WTO race
BANGKOK (AFP): Thai activists Tuesday rejected a U.S. appeal
for calm over the highly charged race for the WTO leadership
after Washington sparked fury here by failing to back Thailand's
candidate.
About 20 activists, including a Bangkok MP, delivered two
letters to the U.S. embassy here demanding U.S. neutrality in the
selection process for the World Trade Organization's new leader.
Thailand has accused the U.S. of blocking a consensus behind
its candidate Commerce Minister Supachai Panitchpakdi in favor of
New Zealand's former premier Mike Moore.
"We are calling for neutrality from the U.S. and asking them
to ensure transparency in the selection process," said MP Chareon
Khantawong.
"If the U.S. cannot live up to President Clinton's word,
please tell the Thai people we cannot trust a letter from your
president any more," he said.
Chareon was referring to a letter in which President Bill
Clinton told Thai Premier Chuan Leekpai that Washington would not
block a consensus for Supachai.
Following comments Monday in which senior U.S. envoy Ralph
Boyce called for calm after a wave of anger directed at the
United States, Chareon insisted the fault lay with Washington.
"It is the U.S. which is making this issue serious because
they are trying to block us," he said, adding that as long as
transparency was guaranteed, Thailand would accept the result,
win or lose.
The letters were addressed to Boyce, U.S. deputy assistant
secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, and U.S.
ambassador to Thailand Richard Hecklinger.
The leadership campaign, which has split the 134 members of
the WTO, is being viewed as a matter of national prestige in
Thailand, which has been stung at the stance of the United States
which it regards as a close ally.
Boyce warned Monday that Thai-U.S. relations could be damaged
by an anti-U.S. campaign whipped up by the press and some
politicians.
"I want to ask Thai people not to take this too seriously as
it is not good for relations between our two countries," Boyce
told reporters in fluent Thai.
"I want them to think about the long relations between the two
countries."
Reports here say WTO members will meet Wednesday to try to
thrash out a consensus for either candidate.
The WTO has been without a leader since Renato Ruggiero of
Italy stepped down at the end of his term in April. The council
is due to meet on Wednesday.
In Geneva, a WTO spokesman said that the ruling General
Council of the trade organization will meet on Wednesday to
discuss the selection of the next WTO director-general, a
spokesman said on Tuesday.
But prospects for breaking a deadlock between countries
favoring Mike Moore, a former prime minister of New Zealand, and
those backing Thai Deputy Prime Minister Supachai Panitchpakdi,
appear slim, according to trade envoys.
The European Union's ambassador to the WTO told a news
conference last week that given the stalemate, the chairman
conducting the process, Tanzanian ambassador Ali Mchumo, may have
to declare that neither candidate can get the job.