The Director-General of the World Trade Organization is responsible for supervising the administrative functions of the World Trade Organization

World Trade Organization

The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...

 (WTO). Because World Trade Organizations' decisions are made by member states (through either a Ministerial Conference or through the General Council), the Director-General has little power over matters of policy - the role is primarily advisory and managerial. Director-General supervises the WTO secretariat of about 700 staff. WTO Director-General is appointed by WTO members for a term of four years.

The current Director-General (since September 2005) is Pascal Lamy

Pascal Lamy

Pascal Lamy is the Director-General of the World Trade Organization, a French political advisor, a businessman, and a former European Commissioner for Trade...

 of France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

Before the creation of the WTO, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was negotiated during the UN Conference on Trade and Employment and was the outcome of the failure of negotiating governments to create the International Trade Organization . GATT was signed in 1947 and lasted until 1993, when it was replaced by the World...

 had a series of Directors-General

Director-General of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

The Director-General of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was responsible for supervising the administrative functions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade . The first Director-General, Eric Wyndham White, was appointed on March 23, 1965. GATT had a total of 5 Director-Generals...

. Peter Sutherland

Peter Sutherland

Peter Denis Sutherland, KCMG is an Irish international businessman and former Attorney General of Ireland, associated with the Fine Gael party . He is a barrister by profession, and is also Senior Counsel at the Irish Bar...

 was the last DG of GATT and the first of the WTO.

Past Directors-General

This is a list of former holders of the office of director-general. The post was created in 1995, although the earlier office of Executive Secretary is often seen as a direct equivalent.

	Name	Took office	Left office	Country
1	Peter Sutherland Peter Sutherland Peter Denis Sutherland, KCMG is an Irish international businessman and former Attorney General of Ireland, associated with the Fine Gael party . He is a barrister by profession, and is also Senior Counsel at the Irish Bar...	1 July 1993	1 May 1995	Ireland Ireland Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
2	Renato Ruggiero Renato Ruggiero Renato Ruggiero is an Italian politician. He has been director-general of the World Trade Organisation and was briefly the Italian Foreign Minister in 2001.-Biography:...	1 May 1995	1 September 1999	Italy Italy Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
3	Mike Moore	1 September 1999	1 September 2002	New Zealand New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
4	Supachai Panitchpakdi Supachai Panitchpakdi Supachai Panitchpakdi is the Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development . Prior to this, he was the Director-General of the World Trade Organization from September 1, 2002 to September 1, 2005...	1 September 2002	1 September 2005	Thailand Thailand Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
5	Pascal Lamy Pascal Lamy Pascal Lamy is the Director-General of the World Trade Organization, a French political advisor, a businessman, and a former European Commissioner for Trade...	1 September 2005	---	France France The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...