"Well Done, Mike Moore!" Says NZTLN

29 August 2002

"Well Done, Mike Moore!" Says NZTLN

"We congratulate and salute our Kiwi compatriot Mike Moore as he finishes his current WTO role" said Trade Liberalisation Network Acting Director Philip Lewin this afternoon.

Mr Lewin was commenting in acknowledgement of the World Trade Organisation Director- General' s retirement tomorrow, after a three-year term.

"Mike is an international statesperson par excellence" continued Mr Lewin. "He was a driving force in the 1980s in setting up the Cairns Group as a third wave for agricultural trade opening. He was there throughout the Uruguay Round negotiations as a passionate champion for better global trade rules and wider market access, especially for poor and underprivileged countries."

"Getting a better trade access deal for New Zealand should be a matter of bipartisan importance, transcending domestic politics. This was shown graphically in Marrakesh in April 1994, after the negotiations were finally successfully concluded. Trade Minister Philip Burdon not only included his predecessor Mike Moore as part of the New Zealand delegation, but also signed the Uruguay Round Final Act using Mike's fountain pen, with Mike standing proudly at his side."

"As the new WTO was bedded in the second half of the nineties, the influence of Mike Moore grew and his name was increasingly to the fore as a suitable successor to Renato Ruggiero as WTO Director General.

"All of us will remember the protracted campaign which eventually saw Mike take up this job in late 1999. For a New Zealander to get through to the leadership of such a highly political global body is ample testimony to that New Zealander's unique qualities" Mr Lewin added.

"It can be justly said that following the acrimonious "battle of Seattle" in December 1999, Mike Moore played the leading role in putting the WTO and world trading rules back on their feet. He worked tirelessly to achieve a belated launch of new global trade negotiations through which all countries, and particularly New Zealand, stand to benefit greatly. His persistence paid off in spades when the Doha Round was launched in November last year".

"Mike Moore thus produced the goods and repaid the faith that so many nations had placed in him."

"The Doha Round will be a protracted and arduous business. Every country will need to come out of it a winner - and New Zealand must be there for the long haul. The Trade Liberalisation Network fully supports this undertaking. At the end of the day, the objective is the same one that Mike Moore targeted back in the '80s - a freer and fairer international trade deal for all of us" said Mr Lewin.

Philip Lewin 04 914 6517 / 021 956 026

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