WTO's new leader should be from developing country

If the new leader of the WTO is from an emerging economy, he will necessarily make a more-positive contributions to the fairness of the WTO rule-making process and push free trade, says an editorial in People's Daily. Excerpts:

The nomination of the next director-general of the WTO recently ended, and the second stage of the appointment has already begun.

The WTO is an international economic and trade organ. It is worth our attention to see who will be behind the wheel of the WTO in the next four years.

Nine countries submitted their candidates to WTO. The nine countries are Ghana, Costa Rico, New Zealand, Kenya, Jordan, Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Brazil. The next director-general will probably come from an emerging economy or a less-developed country.

It would be good news for the WTO to have a leader from a non-developed country, the second one in its history, as the IMF and World Bank's leaders are all from developed countries.

Past experience indicates the background of the leader will have some influence on his and even WTO's decisions.

The current world economy is full of uncertainties. Trade protectionism and the urgency to promote global trade at the same time are obvious.

The new WTO leader should make more breakthroughs possible in multilateral negotiations and push the less-developed countries to develop faster. The new leader should also look at trade issues and globalization more from the perspective of the emerging economies and less-developed countries, which will help these countries integrate into the global economy as soon as possible and foster a more balanced and fairer global-trade environment.