The US officials today reported that Former EU trade chief Pascal Lamy is not the only candidate for the post of World Trade Organization chief executive.

"We believe he (Lamy) would be a very strong candidate," said Robert Zoellick, the US Deputy Secretary of State."The WTO would be very well served by his candidacy but there are other candidates as well."

Ohio congressman Rob Portman was projected to be the next trade representative after Zoellick left this post.
In order to avoid speculations that may be caused by candidate vagueness, Washington and Brussels are planning a set a deal involving the top jobs at the Geneva-based WTO and the World Bank.

Zoellick said Lamy was going to visit Washington and to give his own view concerning the future of the world trade body.

"The United States is a big player in the WTO process. Sometimes our supports helps, sometimes it doesn’t help," Zoellick said ironically. "In this case we are just one vote of many. But we have made very clear that we’d be very comfortable with (former) Commissioner Lamy and that I think he could play a strong role."

Totally there are four candidates to head the WTO. They are Brazil’s WTO ambassador Luiz Felipe Seixas Correa, former European Trade Commission Lamy of France, Mauritius Foreign Minister Jaya Krishna Cuttaree and long-time Uruguayan trade envoy Carlos Perez del Castillo.

By the end of May the WTO promises to name the winner who will start working since September 1.