Mr. Lamy, who assumes office on 1 September, told the General Council in a statement that he has selected Alejandro Jara of Chile, Valentine Rugwabiza of Rwanda, Harsha Singh of India and Rufus Yerxa of the United States. Their terms of office will begin on 1 October.
Jara, currently Chile's ambassador to the WTO since 2000, has served in the Chilean Government since 1976. Ms. Rugwabiza has served as Rwanda's Ambassador to the WTO since 2002 and is the first woman ever appointed as a Deputy Director-General for the World Trade Organization. She currently chairs the WTO's Africa group.
Mr. Singh is Secretary of India's Telecom Regulatory Authority and a former member of the WTO Secretariat. Mr. Yerxa, a former Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, has served the last three years as Deputy Director-General to Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi.
Current deputy-general Dr. Kipkorir Rana from Kenya said: "Mr. Lamy has chosen a very good team, which has strong experience at the WTO." Dr. Rana expressed hope that the new team will be able to breath life into the flagging Doha round negotiations.
Negotiations on agriculture this week ended in a disappointment and no preliminary approximation, which would outline all crucial issues, was presented. Earlier, WTO director-general Supachai and the chairman of the agriculture group Tim Grosner had voiced concerns that without an approximation by July, the Hong Kong ministerial negotiations would be in serious danger.
But Rana expressed cautious optimism: "There will be a reality check in octobre. We hope that with the change of guards a positive result will be possible."