U.S. Consulting on New World Bank Head, Flaherty Says
By Greg Quinn
May 19 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. is asking Canada and other countries about who should replace Paul Wolfowitz as the World Bank's president, Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said.
``It is happening,'' Flaherty, 57, said today before the second day of a meeting of finance ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations near Potsdam, outside Berlin. ``The U.S. is being consultative of Canada and other countries.''
Wolfowitz quit May 17, less than halfway through his five- year term, amid a furor over securing a pay raise for his companion. The White House bowed to pressure for his ouster from European governments, which said the former U.S. deputy defense secretary had hobbled the world's largest development agency.
Flaherty and German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said today they back a convention allowing the U.S. to choose the World Bank's next head. The U.S. has always picked the bank president, while the head of the International Monetary Fund is a European.
The list of possible successors includes U.S. Treasury Deputy Secretary Robert Kimmitt, 59; former Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, 53; and Allan Hubbard, 59, director of the White House National Economic Council.
No Preference
Canada expects the next World Bank president will be an American appointed by the U.S., Flaherty said at a press conference after the meeting. Flaherty said he and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson haven't spoken by phone yet about specific names, and Canada doesn't have a preference.
The G-8 ministers thanked Wolfowitz today in a statement after the meeting for his service at the World Bank and his work on reducing poverty in Africa. |
