THE battle for the top job in the World Trade Organisation will heat up next week in an institution that has historically been divided between rich and poor nations.

The competition to replace Supachai Panitchpakdi, the WTO’s director-general, pits Pascal Lamy, the former EU Trade Commissioner, against two Latin Americans — Carlos Perez del Castillo, of Uruguay, and Luis Felipe de Seixas Correa, of Brazil — and an African, Jayen Cuttaree, of Mauritius.

The Uruguayan ambassador to the WTO has strong credentials. A polished diplomat, he served last year as chairman of the WTO’s general council, the main trade negotiating body.

His main rival, Senhor Seixas Correa, will garner support from the G20, a group of powerful industrialising nations, led by Brazil, which played a key role in forcing concessions from the US and the EU over agriculture subsidies.

However, there is a growing opinion that M Lamy, despite his rich-country provenance, may emerge as a favoured compromise candidate at a time of increasing division within the developing nation bloc.

Christopher Roberts, a former Department of Trade and Industry official and now a trade consultant for the Covington & Burling law firm, said: “Perez del Castillo and Seixas Correa cancel each other out. Lamy is probably the strongest candidate if people can forget that he was the EU commissioner for trade. One hopes they will not make it Buggins’s turn — we haven’t had an African yet.”

Brazil’s support of Senhor Seixas Correa has already exposed division within Latin America. Brazil was angered by Uruguay’s failure to support the G20 during the failed trade talks at Cancún. It also accused Señor Perez del Castillo of being too close to the US.

The poorer nations could rally behind Mr Cuttaree after Mukhisa Kituyi, the Kenyan Trade Minister, withdrew from the race a week ago, leaving the way open for the Mauritian foreign minister to secure the support of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group.

The WTO will be anxious to avoid the embarrassing row that broke out between Mike Moore and Dr Supachai in 1999. The race between the New Zealander and the Thai became an acrimonious First World/Third World struggle, and countries could not reach the required consensus to appoint the new leader. The two men split the term. The battle to become the next WTO director-general, however, may be different.

Rather than a fight between rich and poor, the organisation is today witnessing a new rivalry between the interests of the emerging trading powers and the poorest nations that have been left behind.

Dominated by a group of powerful trading nations — Brazil, India, China and South Africa — the G20 came together prior to the ill-fated Cancún ministerial conference to fight against the farm subsidies of the wealthy nations. But the interests of the industrialising countries are often at odds with the poorest nations, many of which are African and depend on preferences and special trading deals to support their own weak exporters.

David Bailey, a senior policy adviser for Oxfam, said that the new WTO director-general would have to stand up for the interests of the smaller developing countries. “Preferences are a real issue,” he said.

In the new year, textile import quotas in Europe and the US will be removed, but the event, welcomed by powerful developing nations such as China and India, threatens weaker exporters such as Bangladesh, which have benefited from trade preference agreements with the EU.

The new director-general needs to be a proficient diplomat and advocate for the WTO, as well a technocrat able to cope with the statistical complexity of tariffs and quotas, said Mr Roberts, who believes M Lamy has both strengths.

M Lamy’s willingness to push for the reform of EU farm subsidies against the wishes of EU government will stand him in good stead. While there will be support for a candidate from a developing country, Mr Bailey predicts that the choice will not come down to ethnic or national prejudice.

He said: “The WTO is not like some less important UN jobs. This is a powerful position and what happens there matters to governments, so nationality is not the main factor.”