By Nopporn Wong-Anan
BANGKOK, Feb 11 (Reuters) - The World Trade Organisation's next boss, Supachai Panitchpakdi, on Friday voiced optimism for a new round of global trade liberalisation despite the spectacular collapse of summit talks in Seattle late last year.
The Thai deputy premier, who is due to take over the reins of the WTO in 2002 after the incumbent's term ends, said the world's big powers were making quiet, steady progress toward a new round.
Supachai said the debacle of the WTO's Seattle Ministerial Meeting, which failed to agree terms for a new Millennium Round of trade talks and saw rioting by opponents of the WTO's free trade goals, left wounds that had to be healed.
"We are on the verge of going into a new round of trade negotiation," Supachai told Reuters Television in an interview.
"It is a bit too early to say when a new round could be launched. It is so early after Seattle. We are building up confidence and that doesn't mean we have to be overt in our actions.
"If you are committed too much you may have some reaction from countries that are still not ready for a new round. But we are having informal meetings here and there.
"In the meantime, definite progress has been made, not to launch a new round, but to see the best way to prepare ourselves in going towards that round."
Supachai is president of the 10th summit of the United Nations trade and development agency UNCTAD (UNCTAD X) which is to be held in Bangkok for a week from Saturday.
He said developing countries needed guidance in preparing their positions ahead of the next trade talks.
"This is a very challenging time for developing countries," he said. "We are on the verge of deciding the direction of globalisation."
He said the UNCTAD meeting should help developing countries ensure that the process of trade liberalisation and removal of tariff barriers benefited them.
UNCTAD PLATFORM FOR DEVELOPING WORLD
"Developing countries need more guidance and need to be helped in building up their own capacity to compete at the world market level," Supachai said.
"UNCTAD X would be able to point out the consequences of past globalisation and liberalisation trends, (help us) learn from past mistakes and lessons, and detect whichever direction is beneficial for developing countries," he said.
He said the UNCTAD conference would be a platform from which poorer nations' voices could be heard.
"This is a conference where all countries, large or small, will have their say," he said.
"We are looking forward to being able to hear all voices, recommendations from all parts of the world... including from the non-governmental organisations (NGOs)."
Supachai said the NGOs and anti-free trade demonstrators in Seattle should not be blamed for the failure of the WTO meeting to reach agreement on a new round.
"The lack of a final solution in Seattle was not really caused by those demonstrators," he said. "It was the concrete negotiating positions in the meeting room that kept us apart."
"So here (at UNCTAD X) the healing process is that there will be meetings among ministers. There will be quite a number of trade ministers who will be meeting unofficially so that we can learn of the course of actions taken in Geneva and what we should be doing in the future to build up confidence.":
