World Trade Organization seeks new home

May 9, 2007, 15:51 GMT

Geneva - The head of the World Trade Organization, WTO, confirmed Wednesday that the group was looking for bigger headquarters but refused to comment on rumours that this could be outside Geneva or even Switzerland.

WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said the organization had outgrown its premises at the William Rappard Centre in Geneva and the executive had given him the go-ahead to negotiate with the Swiss government which owns the site.

'At the WTO, everyone works with everyone. There is nothing to be gained in separating people who want to work together. The current temporary arrangement is unsatisfactory,' said Lamy.

Up to 100 staff are presently housed in an annexe at the William Rappard Centre overlooking Lake Geneva close to the European headquarters of the United Nations.

'Above all we need to be under the same roof,' added Lamy who refused to be drawn on claims that the WTO had been approached by Hong Kong and Singapore with a view to moving the operation there. He said he would not fall into a trap of negotiating in public.

He did not comment on speculation in the Swiss media a week ago that Micheline Calmy-Rey's government was under pressure to contribute up to 400 million Swiss francs (326 million US dollars) for a new building, stressing instead that it was the 150 member countries that would pick up the final bill.

The WTO, responsible for nurturing multilateral trade agreements between its 150 members and acting as referee in international trade disputes, set up in the William Rappard Centre in 1995 when it replaced GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which had been housed there.

The building, on a site originally offered by the Swiss to the League of Nations after the First World War, has seen international organizations come and go.

It was purpose built for the International Labour Organization in 1926, GATT moved there in 1975 alongside the UN agency for refugees, UNHCR, which subsequently switched to brand new premises a few years ago.

Lamy said there was no timetable. Several solutions were under discussion, that could include extending the current building.