May 29, 1991

GATT: THIRD WORLD GROUP CRITICAL OF SECRETARIAT REORGANISATION.

GENEVA, MAY 27 (CHAKRAVARTHI RAGHAVAN) – The reorganisation of the GATT secretariat and changes in senior levels announced recently by GATT Director-General Arthur Dunkel appears to have come in for considerable unfavourable comments at the meeting of the informal group of Third World countries in GATT Monday.

The issue is also expected to come up at the GATT Council meeting later this week when Chile, which is chairing the Group of Latin American and Caribbean countries, is expected to make a statement outlining the group's dissatisfaction and concern both over the changes and the manner in which they were carried out.

The meeting of the informal Third World group had been set when it had become known that Dunkel was planning to reorganise the secretariat and that he did not plan to fill up the post of Deputy Director-General that would become vacant at the end of July when the present incumbent, Madan G. Mathur from India would retire.

Under the GATT procedures the Director-General has to consult contracting parties in filling up the post.

Since the meeting was summoned, Dunkel has announced the reorganisation of the GATT secretariat on 17 May wherein he had said that following the "impending retirement" of Mathur and five other senior members, he was making la number of organisational changes in the secretariat designed "to meet the immediate needs of the contracting parties of GATT and of the participants in the Uruguay Round."Dunkel had also said in the announcement that he had been holding consultations and would continue to do so in order-to identify a successor to Mathur. But the organisational chart issued with his announcement said however that the post was being kept in abeyance, and with no duties attached to that office (when it is to be filled up).Colombia’s Felipe Jaramillo is one of the leading candidates for the post but Dunkel would appear not to favour him.

In his consultations earlier, Dunkel while indicating to some of the GATT delegates that he did not plan to fill the post vacated by Mathur, had reportedly "informed" them that in exercise of his right to appoint officials in the secretariat up to the rank of D-2, he would be creating two new posts of Assistant Directors-General and appoint to the posts Arif Husain of India who till now has been Director in the Director-General's office and Keith Broadbridge a national of British origin of the crown colony of Hong Kong (which as a territory with separate customs administration is a GATT CP).An organisation chart to take effect from 1 June showed that the earlier the division of "Trade and Development" in the GATT secretariat had disappeared while a new directorate "Technical Barriers to Trade and Environment", would be created.

At the informal Third World meeting Monday, chaired by Amb. Rubens Ricupero of Brazil, Chile's Fernando Morales, as chair of the GRULA group, would appear to have said that Dunkel had not carried any consultations with the Latin American Group on the reorganisation of the secretariat and what little they had heard gave the GRULA members to understand that there had been no "worthwhile consultations" with others either.

There were also many "administrative contradictions" in the organisation chart like the disappearance of trade and development division and the creation of a new "environment" division even though the GATT Council was still to decide on the nature of its involvement in this issue.India’s Amb. Balkrishan Zutshi reportedly said while not wishing to challenge in any way Dunkel’s rights in the organisation of his secretariat, in his consultations Dunkel had indicated he would not fill the Deputy Director-General post. He had since announced he was continuing his consultations while the chart showed the post as in abeyance and without any work for the post.

Among others who intervened Tanzania’s Amir Jamal also reportedly complained of the abolition of the development division.

Morocco reportedly sought some clarification on the issues in the secretariat reorganisation that were within the purview of the DG and those within that of the CPs.

Jamaica’s Lloyd Barnett reportedly that in all intergovernmental organisations the bureaucracy was there to service the membership and there were "sensitive" issues raising concerns among the membership that had to be taken into account.

There appeared to be an ongoing trend in the intergovernmental organisations on the issue of "development" and as contracting parties they were entitled to ask some questions, when the development division in the secretariat had, at least optically, disappeared and no explanation had been provided.At the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), he noted, its "development role" was being sought to be diluted or ended. At the UN Conference on Environment and Development, the term was there in the name and title, but the discussions did not take any account of development at all.

And while the issue of GATT involvement in environment was still being discussed within the GATT Council and the CPs, a new division had been created within the secretariat showing that it was being looked at in terms of "trade" and "technical barriers to trade" and with no reference to environment and development.Mrs. Narcisa Escaler of Philippines (who chairs the Trade and Development Committee of the CPs) said she had also been concerned but had been assured by Dunkel that the servicing of the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD) would come under a Director (Brazil’s Barthel-Rosa (who would also be dealing with the CPs Session and Council Affairs and "subordinate bodies") and that development dimension work of the secretariat would permeate every activity.

Some GATT sources said that even though the servicing of the CTD, according to Dunkel's explanations to Escaler would continue through the division on subordinate bodies, most of the staff involved were already being shifted out to other divisions.Some GATT observers noted that at an earlier stage, in relation to the Uruguay Round, when Dunkel was told about the mandate for an assessment by the Group of Negotiations on Goods, before the conclusion of the Round so as to enable corrective actions, of the outcome of the negotiations from the viewpoint of the Third World countries, he had tried unsuccessfully to get around this by saying that this was a continuous process.

The U.S. and other major ICs want to end the special status in GATT of the Third World countries and de facto the Part IV of the GATT dealing with trade and development.