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Tuesday July 20, 1:00 pm Eastern Time FOCUS-New Zealand's Moore set to get top WTO job (recasts throughout)
By Robert Evans
GENEVA, July 20 (Reuters) - Former New Zealand Prime Minister Mike Moore, a one-time social worker, was on Tuesday effectively cleared to become Director-General of the World Trade Organisation for three years from September 1.
Under a compromise plan ending months of bitter wrangling, ambassadors at an informal meeting of the body's ruling General Council also agreed that Thailand's Supachai Panitchpakdi would take the post after Moore from late 2002 to 2005.
Council chairman Ali Mchumo of Tanzania said he would call a formal session later in the week to put the final seal on the unusual arrangement.
``But it's a done deal,'' said one key envoy. ``No-one said they would oppose the solution, although no-one said they liked it,'' a WTO spokesman said.
``We have consensus on the basic question of a split term with Mr Moore serving first and Supachai second,'' said Bangladeshi Ambassador Istekhar Chowdhury, who first proposed the plan which was taken up actively by Australia.
Remaining to be decided is how many deputies the two should be able to have. Some developing countries want five -- so that all five regions -- Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America and Europe -- could be represented.
But WTO officials said the consensus appeared to be that four was enough. They said a final decision on this could be taken in September.
Removing any last-minute doubts, Thailand's ambassador Krirk-Krai Jarapaet told reporters before the meeting that Supachai, currently his country's Deputy Prime Minister, had no objection to going second after Moore.
In principle, a WTO Director-General is appointed for a four-year term which could be renewed, and his successor is appointed by consensus among countries in the currently 134-member body just before he leaves.
But this year, as previous incumbent Renato Ruggiero of Italy was preparing his departure, the process broke down soon after Moore and Supachai emerged as the leading candidates of an original four.
The Council chamber, used to diplomatic discussion even at the height of major trade disputes, was in April and May the scene of fierce and personalised exchanges between supporters of the two and accusations of bad faith and dirty tricks.
The face-saving solution emerged after a cooling-off period in June when the Bangladesh idea was taken up by Australia, a Supachai backer, and won support through a series of backstage meetings set up by Canberra's Geneva envoy Geoffrey Raby.
U.S. ambassador Rita Hayes, whose country had been firmly for Moore on the grounds that his popular style made him ideal to plead the cause of the WTO and free trade at a time they are under growing attack, said Washington agreed to the deal.
``We basically support a split-term, knowing that we have to move forward on the world trade agenda,'' she told reporters.
Moore, a 50-year-old who moved into politics from the labour movement and has served as foreign and overseas trade minister, will come to the job as the WTO is preparing for a key ministerial meeting starting in Seattle on November 30.
In the three months before, envoys in Geneva have to agree an agenda and a draft final declaration which is expected to launch a new round of negotiations on lowering tariffs and other global trade barriers further.
Anti-free trade groups are already preparing a massive protest campaign at Seattle over the ``globalisation'' they see embodied in the WTO and which they say only benefits big multinational firms at the expense of the poor.
Moore's admirers say his working-class origins -- his first job was as a printer's mate -- and his combative skills developed as a Labour Party politician put him in a good position to counter these arguments.
Supachai, a skilled economist from an upper-class family, will take over at a time when the new round -- which most countries say should last only three years but is almost certain to go on longer -- will be moving to a conclusion.
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