8:10 AM Jun 17, 1993

GATT: SUTHERLAND BEGINS CONSULTATIONS ON THREE DEPUTIES

Geneva 17 June (TWN) -- The GATT Director-General designate, Peter Sutherland, was in Geneva Thursday and was due to begin consultations for the appointment of three Deputy Directors-General.

He was meeting a group of key delegations over lunch hosted by the Chairman of the GATT CPs, who was due later in the afternoon to advise the Council that technically the consultations had to be done by the GATT Director-General (Arthur Dunkel till 30 June), but that Sutherland as the D.G. designate should be asked to undertake it.

The Council on Wednesday paid tributes to Arthur Dunkel who will be demitting office after 13 years.

The Chairman of the CPs, Balkrishna Zutshi of India praised Dunkel's commitment to multilateralism, as opposed to unilateralism, and his untiring efforts at projecting the true nature and scope of the GATT and its relevance to the real world as well to lick it into shape through the Uruguay Round. While the GATT was supposed to be a rich man's club, and it had still not shed that "faintly unsavoury reputation", it was now being seen as a possible vehicle for a new era of cooperation and multilateralism based on fair and equitable rules of trading relations among nations, Zutshi said.

The Chairman of the GATT Council, Andras Szepsi of Hungary, noted that during the 13-year tenure of Dunkel, GATT had changed from a relatively small, rather closed, exclusive and quasi-technical club to an agreement and institution of wide geographical representation whose activities were debated world-wide almost every day by governments, business circles and public opinion.