Morocco withdraws Abouyoub's candidacy to WTO top post

Morocco has unilaterally decided to withdraw the candidacy of Hassan Abouyoub to the post of director general of the World Trade Organization, it was officially announced here this Monday.

A spokesman for the ministry of foreign affairs and cooperation announced that the Moroccan government has made the decision after it noted that the conditions of transparency and fairness that were to lead to a democratic consensus are no longer there.

"After it assessed the nomination process of the future Director General of the World Trade Organization in light of the latest developments, the government of the Kingdom of Morocco has noted that the conditions of transparency and fairness on the basis of which a democratic consensus was to emerge, are no longer gathered," the spokesman said in a statement.

"The absence of figures on the evolution of the backing to the candidates and the resort to subjective and speculative criteria arouse around the process the same suspicion as the one that prompted last December the General council to adopt an alternative approach to restore the credibility of the director general appointment mechanisms," the spokesman said.

Citing instances of absence of transparency, the statement listed the absence of accurate regulations in the WTO statutes, failure to respect deadlines for the release of the results of the various consultations and the existence of political pressures.

Morocco expresses hope that its decision would contribute to creating a new situation that would reactivate the process (of the WTO chief nomination) on credible and legal bases that are necessary to the new WTO director general to fulfill his mission, the spokesman said.

He added that "Morocco voices, through this move, its determination to preserve the coherence of the ranks of developing countries and to consolidate the trend that emerges from the consultations and that shows... the emergence of consensus for the appointment, for the first time in the history of the institution, of a candidate of developing countries."

Morocco also said that it will endeavor to establish accurate and appropriate regulations for the appointment of the WTO bodies.

Morocco expressed recognition to the African, Arab, Asian, European and Latin American countries for their backing to the Moroccan candidate.

The WTO is supposed to replace by April at the latest its first director General Renato Ruggiero of Italy who is not running for another term.

Besides the Moroccan Abouyoub, three other candidates were running for the position: Thai Deputy Prime Minister Supachai Panitchpakdi, former trade minister of Canada Roy MacLaren and New Zealand's former prime minister Michael Moore.

The appointment is made on the basis of the density of support, geographical distribution of expressed backing and level of acceptance. So far no consensus could be built around one of the four candidates.