6:22 AM May 25, 1993

ELECTION OF NEW GATT D.G. SET FOR JUNE 9

Geneva 25 May (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- A meeting of the GATT Contracting Parties to appoint a successor to Arthur Dunkel as Director-General has been set for June 9.

Officially, there are three candidates: Peter Sutherland of Ireland, backed by the US, EC and most other Industrialized nations, Julio Munoz Lacarte of Uruguay and Luis Fernando Jaramillo of Colombia.

Sutherland, according to GATT sources, is due in Geneva to meet informally over lunch some of the ambassadors to the GATT from the developing world.

According to some Third World sources, he has now considerably toned down his original conditions -- about a successful Uruguay Round and the creation of an MTO and his term of office, of enhanced role and powers for the head of such an organization, and bringing in his own top team of officials.

However, while reported by many to be still "flexible", he is calling for a status and salaries equivalent to that of the heads of the IMF and the World Bank and thus out of the UN system now governing GATT staff.