MINING IN MEXICO — Salinas in running to head WTO

Outgoing Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari and former Italian trade minister Renato Ruggiero are the favorites to head the new World Trade Organization (WTO), diplomats said recently in Geneva.

Ruggiero has the official backing of the European Union, while Salinas is supported by the U.S. The former, however, appears to have the edge as a counterweight to existing U.S. and Mexican presence in the GATT secretariat, Agence France Presse reports.

The WTO is set to succeed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) on Jan. 1, 1995, with the task of implementing the accords reached in the marathon Uruguay round of trade negotiations.

As in the GATT bargaining, the choice of the first director-general of the new body will be made by consensus before the end of the year by the 123 GATT member states.

The other two candidates are South Korean Trade Minister Kim Chul-Su and former Brazilian finance minister Rubens Ricupero, but the latter seems to be out of the running since he was forced to resign amid scandal recently. A point in Ruggiero’s favor is the fact that the

appointment of Salinas would tip the leadership

of the WTO towards the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and to Mexico in particular.

The three deputy directors of GATT, who still have three years in office, include another Mexican, Jesus Seade, and Warren Lavorel of the U.S., along with Anwarul Hoda of India.