Staff writer

Mike Moore, the newly appointed director general of the World Trade Organization, will visit Tokyo next month to discuss the upcoming round of global trade liberalization negotiations, government sources said Tuesday.

Moore, a former New Zealand prime minister who took the WTO post on Sept. 1, will make the four-day visit starting Oct. 17 and meet Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and his foreign, trade and other ministers, the sources said.

The biggest item on the agenda for Moore and the Japanese leaders will be a new round of global trade talks to be formally launched at a third WTO ministerial meeting in Seattle at the end of November, the sources said.

The 135-nation WTO is the Geneva-based body that replaced the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in January 1995 as a new and more powerful watchdog for international commerce.

With only two months to go before the WTO ministers assemble in Seattle, sharp differences remain, even among industrialized countries, over the scope and formula of the negotiations.

While Japan and the 15-nation European Union want the new round to cover as many areas as possible, the United States places priority on the so-called built-in agenda of agriculture and services -- two areas in which that country has a competitive advantage in the global marketplace.

In addition, Japan and the EU advocate the principle of a "single taking," which would require WTO members to accept agreements on a wide range of areas as one package. But the U.S. wants to see agreements on agriculture and services accepted first, claiming that the approach of single undertaking could take many years.

Highly alarmed by a growing number of antidumping cases in the U.S. targeting steelmakers from Japan and other countries, Japan also insists on conducting a review of international antidumping rules in the new round to prevent their abuse by some WTO members. The U.S. remains vehemently opposed to doing so.

"Japan expects Moore to show strong political leadership to resolve those differences and get the new round going smoothly," one government source said.

Moore fought a fierce battle with Supachai Panitchpakdi, Thailand's vice prime minister and commerce minister, for the helm of the WTO, following the resignation of Italy's Renato Ruggiero as director general at the end of April.

Moore was strongly backed by the United States, while Supachai was supported by Japan and some other Asian countries. Moore served as prime minister of New Zealand for eight weeks in 1990 before his Labor Party was voted out of office. The top WTO post has traditionally been elected by consensus among the member countries, not by votes.

In late July, the WTO members reached a unique job-sharing deal to end a prolonged leadership vacuum at the WTO. Under that deal, Moore will serve as WTO director general for three years from Sept. 1 until August 2002, while Supachai will hold the post for the following three years until August 2005.

Although Moore made trips to most other major industrialized countries either during or after his campaign for the top WTO post, he has not yet visited Tokyo.

That is probably because Moore has been terribly busy campaigning and because Japan backed Supachai from the early stages of the race, according to a senior official at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

The MITI official, requesting anonymity, said that Japan backed Supachai in the WTO leadership race because Thailand is a fellow Asian country and also because Japan thought the appointment of a candidate from a developing country as WTO chief would encourage many other developing countries to participate actively in the new round of global trade liberalization negotiations.

Although he built his political career at home in the labor movement, Moore is said to be a committed convert to free trade.

While industrialized countries are enthusiastic about launching the new round, many developing countries are generally reluctant to participate, claiming that further liberalization would benefit the industrialized camp alone.

But Japan's support of Supachai is also believed by some analysts to reflect a deep concern that Moore's appointment might negatively effect Japan's negotiating position on agricultural in the new round.

New Zealand is a major produce-exporting country. Moore himself has advocated removal of protectionist measures in farm trade.

Trade in rice and other agricultural products is so politically sensitive in Japan that the government will face difficulties agreeing to further liberalization in the new round.

Therefore, Tokyo insists that such nontrade factors as environmental protection and "food security" be fully taken into account when negotiating further liberalization in farm trade.