October 24, 2003	Friday	Sha’aban 27, 1424

GENEVA, Oct 23: Plans under discussion to reform the World Trade Organization should be kept separate from the current round of trade liberalization talks, WTO chief Supachai Panitchpakdi said on Thursday.

“We need to be looking at the decision making system but we should not be doing that within the round,” the director general told AFP in an interview.

“It should be a parallel effort with the round,” he continued.

“At the moment the concentration must be on the negotiations within the DDA (Doha Development Agenda).”

After the collapse of a WTO ministerial meeting in Mexico last month, a frustrated European Union called the global trade body “mediaeval” because member states must make all decisions by consensus.

Brussels is already tossing around several ideas on how to change its structure.

And Supachai also appeared keen to encourage an evolution within the corridors of the giant trade organ.

In June he asked one of his predecessors, Peter Sutherland, to head a “consultative council” charged with compiling a report on reforming the WTO’s operations.

The report should be published next year, but the director general said the committee would likely discuss the issue with WTO members possibly at a general council meeting in December.

One proposal, already aired by the European Union, is to create a two-speed WTO under which countries could exempt themselves from certain obligations.

Asked about this possibility, Supacahi said: “Plurilateral agreements have always been part of this organization, but I don’t think we should rule out any alternatives ... I am working on these options.”

Any actual change to the WTO’s structure would only take place with the full backing of its members, he noted.—AFP