Pascal Lamy reappointed as WTO chief

The World Trade Organization (WTO) today announced the re-appointment Pascal Lamy as its Director-General, who has been heading the multi-lateral agency since September 2005, making strenuous efforts to conclude a global trade deal.

"The General Council agreed to reappoint Director-General Pascal Lamy for a second term of four years as from 1 September. The unanimous decision followed Lamy’s presentation on his vision for the WTO and a question-and-answer session held the day before," the World Trade Organisation said on Thursday.

Though Lamy has been at the helm of the WTO affairs since September 2005, he has been associated with global trade negotiations for about ten years.

Before joining the WTO at Geneva, Lamy was chief negotiator for Europe as European Trade Commissioner.

A French national, Lamy will remain engaged in trying to bring a consensus among 153 nations on concluding the much-delayed Doha Round of negotiations.

"We are living in a time of crisis. Its (global downturn) full impact is still to come and it will inevitably create political pressures. And it is precisely now when protectionist temptations abound that the value of the multilateral trading system is all the more apparent to us," he said in a presentation before the General Council on Wednesday.