Starting this month, the 159 economies of the World Trade Organisation will begin the selection of a new director-general. Instead of the usual practice of a selection based on personality and nationality, the nine candidates for WTO chief need to answer questions of policy leadership. 从本月开始，由159个经济体组成的世贸组织(WTO)将开始遴选新一任总干事。这一次的遴选不应再像以往那样基于候选人的个人资质以及国籍，相反，竞选世贸组织新任总干事的九位候选人必须回答一系列关于政策领导力的问题。

Pascal Lamy, the current director-general, made every effort to complete the Doha round of global trade negotiations. But that deal, launched in 2001, has foundered on differences between developed economies and major emerging markets. As a result, the WTO is at risk of being pushed aside. 现任总干事帕斯卡尔•拉米(Pascal Lamy)为使多哈回合(Doha round)贸易谈判顺利完结尽了全力。但是，这轮启动于2001年的谈判却因发达经济体与主要新兴市场国家之间的分歧而宣告破裂。受此影响，世贸组织目前存在被边缘化的风险。

The action is shifting to other venues, with the announcement of a US-EU trade negotiation being just the most recent. The next DG needs to have a policy agenda to modernise trade multilateralism to meet new challenges. I urge that each candidate should be assessed by the substance of their answers to five questions, which are drawn from the work of Gary Hufbauer and Jeffrey Schott of the Peterson Institute. 贸易谈判活动正在向其他平台转移，最近美国和欧盟就刚刚宣布启动贸易谈判。世贸组织的新任总干事需要拿出一个实现贸易多边主义现代化的政策议程，以应对新的挑战。我强烈建议，在评估每一位候选人时，都应以他们对如下五个问题的回答主旨为依据。这五个问题是从彼得森国际经济研究所(Peterson Institute for International Economics)的加里•赫夫鲍尔(Gary Hufbauer)以及杰弗里•斯科特(Jeffrey Schott)的研究成果中得出的。

First, will you push for a “small package”, drawn from the Doha negotiations, of special benefit to poorer countries? The years of work have identified potential deals, starting with removing quotas and tariffs on almost all the exports of the least developed countries, which account for less than 1 per cent of world trade. 第一个问题是，候选人是否会努力推动向低收入国家提供特别优惠的“小型方案”（源自多哈回合谈判）？此前多年的工作积累已经明确了可能达成的潜在协议，例如取消对最不发达国家几乎所有出口产品的配额限制和关税——这类国家在全球贸易总量中所占比重不足1%。

Given the changing outlook for world agriculture – a shift from chronic surpluses to increased demand – the WTO could end agricultural export subsidies and exempt humanitarian aid from food export controls, as the Group of 20 recommends. The WTO has also identified steps to facilitate trade through streamlined documentation and customs procedures. And the package could include reforms to the WTO dispute settlement process that would boost transparency and encourage speedy decisions with more settlements. Such a package would benefit the most vulnerable economies, while demonstrating that the WTO can still do business. 鉴于全球农业的发展前景正在发生变化——从长期供过于求转变为需求不断扩大——世贸组织或应终止农产品出口补贴，并像20国集团(G20)所建议的那样，使人道主义援助免于受到粮食出口管制的限制。世贸组织还提出了通过简化文件证明以及海关手续来促进贸易活动的办法。该方案还可包含对世贸组织争端解决机制的改革，此举将有助于提高透明度、推动世贸组织以更快的决策速度解决更多纷争。这一方案将使实力最弱的经济体从中受益，并向外界证明世贸组织仍能切实发挥作用。

Second, will you encourage the completion of an international services agreement that offers reciprocal liberalisation to all economies willing to join? Some topics – such as the rapidly increasing services trade – have been held back because all WTO members are not yet willing to commit to openings. But when the WTO stalls, the dealmaking moves elsewhere. The global trading system should encourage “liberalisation by the willing” with others joining when ready. The services trade is increasingly important to boosting productivity in developing countries seeking to avoid the “middle-income trap” and to lowering costs of critical infrastructure development. 第二个问题是，候选人是否愿意推动达成国际服务贸易协议（所有愿意加入该协议的国家都将获得互惠自由化待遇）？快速发展的服务贸易等议题此前受到了搁置，原因是在世贸组织中，并非所有会员都愿意承诺开放本土市场。但当世贸组织搁置讨论这一议题时，谈判的主场就转移到了其他国际机构。世贸组织应当鼓励“有积极性的会员率先施行服务贸易自由化”，其他会员则可在做好准备时再加入进来。对于努力避免“中等收入陷阱”的发展中国家而言，服务贸易正在提高生产力方面发挥愈发重要的作用。此外，其在降低重大基础设施的建设成本方面也有着越来越大的影响。

Third, will you support zero-for-zero “plurilateral” accords that bind all signatories to eliminating tariffs and other barriers reciprocally, sector-by-sector? For example, the information technology agreement of 1996 led to a boom in global sourcing and supply chains for IT products, by getting rid of barriers to trade in this sector. But its list of goods needs to be updated for the digital age, and the ITA II should include services. If the WTO does not create opportunities to conclude new liberalising deals within its framework, the action – and the creation of new rules for new issues – will move elsewhere. 第三个问题是，候选人是否支持“零对零”诸边贸易协定（此类协定规定所有签约国必须在一个接一个的行业内互相取消关税以及其他贸易壁垒）？例如，1996年达成的信息技术产品协议（Information Technology Agreement，简称ITA）消除了这一行业的贸易障碍，进而引发了信息技术产品供应链以及国际外包业务的大繁荣。但该协议覆盖的产品范围需要进行更新，以跟上数字时代的脚步；另外，新版ITA还应包括服务贸易。如果世贸组织没有为在自身框架内达成新的自由化协议创造条件，那么这一使命以及针对新问题制定新规则的主导权转移至其他机构手中。

Fourth, are you willing to press for principles to require fair dealing by state-owned enterprises? The increased importance of SOEs in the world economy – in financial services, telecommunications, steel, chemicals and energy, and other natural resources – requires new rules so that private businesses can compete fairly with state capitalism. The rules need not push privatisation or rollbacks of state enterprises, but they should require transparency, commercial behaviour, declarations of subsidies, nondiscrimination and open procurement. As sovereign wealth funds discovered after they signed the Santiago principles in 2008, agreed, transparent rules build acceptance in the international system. Without such rules, many state enterprises, which seek to trade and invest abroad, will find themselves subject to new barriers. 第四个问题是，候选人是否愿意推动要求国有企业公平竞争的贸易准则？在金融服务、电信、钢铁、化工、能源以及其他自然资源等行业，国有企业在全球经济中的重要性日渐上升，因此我们有必要制定新的规则以确保私营企业能与国家资本主义公平竞争。新规则无需要求会员对国有企业施行私有化或扼制，但应要求国有企业透明化经营、商业化运作、申明所获补贴、不享受特殊待遇以及公开采购。各国主权财富基金在2008年签署了圣地亚哥原则之后发现，得到各方认可的透明规则提高了它们在国际体系中的被认同度。如果没有此类规则，很多国有企业在寻求海外投资和贸易时肯定会遭遇新的壁垒。

Finally, will you agree to launch a discussion with the International Monetary Fund about the application of the existing WTO and IMF rules requiring that exchange rates shall not be manipulated to gain unfair trade advantage? Given the extraordinary monetary policies spawned by the financial crisis – and the risks of competitive devaluations of currencies – multilateral bodies should not abdicate responsibility on these questions. If multilateralism fails, unilateralism may prevail. Brazil has already urged the WTO to discuss these questions. 最后一个问题是，候选人是否同意与国际货币基金组织(IMF)启动一项谈判，讨论如何贯彻后者与世贸组织在汇率问题上的现行规则，以保证各国不再通过操纵汇率来获取不正当贸易优势？考虑到本次金融危机催生的非常规货币政策以及发生竞争性货币贬值的风险，多边机构不应回避自身在这类问题上所担负的责任。如果多边主义未能获得胜利，单边主义就有可能大行其道。巴西现已敦促世贸组织讨论相关议题。

The WTO members need to face up to the key trade policy questions of the day, even if they do not yet agree on the answers. If the WTO members do not select a new leader with an agenda, global trade diplomacy will drift and other negotiations will fill the vacuum. A substantive selection process can give the WTO chief a mandate to get things done. That is what good global governance should be about. 世贸组织会员需要直面当前贸易政策领域的关键问题，即使他们对于如何解决这些问题尚未达成一致。如果世贸组织会员没能选出一位拥有政策议程的新领导人，全球贸易外交的主场将发生转移，其他类型的谈判将填补世贸组织留下的空缺。一个注重实质的遴选机制能够赋予世贸组织新任总干事一种要做实事的使命感。而这正是一个良好的全球治理机制的应有之义。