Financial Times (London, England)

May 18, 2005 Wednesday
Europe Edition 1

SECTION: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR; Pg. 14

LENGTH: 272 words

HEADLINE: A practical visionary at the WTO

BYLINE: By ROBERT HOWSE

BODY:


From Prof Robert Howse.

Sir, In Pascal Lamy, the World Trade Organisation has finally found a leader up to the challenges it faces.

While as you note (report, May 13) the WTO director-general has few formal powers, the opportunity to use the job to set an agenda and reshape the way the WTO works internally has not been exploited so far, because the post has not been held by anyone who combined vision and managerial skill in the manner of Mr Lamy.

The clumsy way in which the WTO has dealt with civil society will end under his leadership - the values of openness and participation are central to his political philosophy, as is the imperative that globalisation should benefit all, not just a privileged few.

Indeed, as anyone familiar with his writings will know, Mr Lamy is among the only intellectual statesmen of our time to offer a positive and hopeful alternative to the critics of global economic liberalism.

Whether for the WTO's external enemies, or those inside who are resistant to progressive change, he will prove a more than formidable match. If he brings a European perspective to the post, it will not be a matter of special pleading for the continent's commercial interests but rather that of enlightened European federalism - the recognition that economic integration must be underpinned by the politics of justice and the recognition of democratic pluralism.

At the same time, his willingness at Cancun to drop insistence on investment and competition talks in the Doha round reflects an ability to compromise and a sound sense of realism.

Robert Howse, Professor of Law, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, US

LOAD-DATE: May 17, 2005