The current head of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Pascal Lamy, is the only candidate for the position of Director-General in the upcoming term, as no one else has applied for the leadership role in the global organization, a WTO spokesperson said on Monday.
Lamy is the only candidate who applied by the application deadline of December 31, said spokesperson Keith Rockwell to Reuters. "No one else has put themselves forward," he said. Lamy’s four-year term at the helm of the WTO ends at the end of August this year. WTO members must now decide whether Lamy will be reappointed to the leadership position automatically or if the organization will have to conduct an official election process, under which a candidate would be appointed by May 31 and take office in September. This is the first time in the 14-year history of the WTO that there is no competition for the leadership position in the global organization, given the previous bitter electoral battles that lasted for months. (H)
