GENEVA, May 9: The race to lead the World Trade Organization entered its final stretch on Monday, as senior diplomats started consultations aimed at deciding whether former EU trade chief Pascal Lamy or Uruguay’s Carlos Perez del Castillo will get the post. Both men, meanwhile, continued lobbying for support among members of the 148-nation WTO, which sets the rules of global commerce.

Amina Mohamed, Kenya’s WTO ambassador, started her last series of one-on-one meetings with representatives of the membership after whittling down the original list of four candidates in recent weeks. Mohamed heads the selection team for the new WTO director-general, helped by the ambassadors of Canada and Norway.

She told journalists she expected to complete the consultations by late Thursday but gave no further details. Outgoing WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi ends his term on August 31. His successor must be chosen by the end of this month.

The final round could set the stage for a north-south showdown, or a scramble for the support of developing countries that could play the role of kingmaker. Lamy, of France, has been leading the race so far. He formally has the backing of the 25 EU member states, but Paris has pressed francophone African countries to swing behind him, according to diplomats.

He is set to travel to South Africa this week, as well as visiting a summit of Caribbean countries. Perez del Castillo, Uruguay’s former WTO ambassador, is formally backed by most Latin American countries and members of the Cairns Group of major farm exporters, including Australia and New Zealand.

He also was due to meet with African members of the WTO on Tuesday, officials said. The last WTO leadership race in 1999 was marked by a bitter dispute — in part a north-south battle — which was resolved by splitting the director general’s six-year term between New Zealand’s Mike Moore and Supachai, of Thailand, with each getting three years in the job.

This time the WTO is just emerging from a damaging rift between rich and poor countries that blocked key global trade talks for months, and diplomats have said they cannot afford another acrimonious leadership battle. As in the first two rounds, the consultations behind closed doors are intended to gauge support for each leadership candidate. Under WTO rules, the director-general is not formally elected. Instead, the winner is meant to be picked by consensus. —AFP