Name Mike Moore Resigned November 2, 1990 | ||
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Books A world without walls, Saving Globalization: Why Glob, Super‑pets and Smart Owners, Marmosets in Captivity, Light up with Laughter Similar People | ||
One on one mike moore
Michael Kenneth Moore ONZ AO (born 28 January 1949), known as Mike Moore, is a politician from New Zealand who has served both as Prime Minister of New Zealand and Director-General of the World Trade Organization. He has also held the post of New Zealand Ambassador to the United States (2010 to December 2015).
Contents
- One on one mike moore
- Early life
- Member of Parliament
- Political positions held
- World Trade Organization
- Later life
- International services and appointments
- Author
- Publications
- Honours and awards
- References
Early life
Moore was born in Whakatāne, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand in 1949. He was raised in Moerewa and educated at the Bay of Islands College and Dilworth School. After leaving school he first worked as a labourer and then a printer. He became an active trade unionist and at the age of 17 was elected to the Auckland Trades Council. He became the first youth representative on the Labour Party executive and was Vice-president of the International Union of Socialist Youth for two consecutive terms. He married Yvonne Dereany in 1975.
Member of Parliament
Moore began his parliamentary career when elected as the MP for Eden in 1972, but was defeated for Eden (and Labour was unexpectedly defeated) in the 1975 election. After the election, the Moores visited Warren Freer, and were insistent that he resign from Mt Albert so that Moore could take his place. Freer (who retired in 1981) said he had no intention of resigning, and anyway there was no guarantee that he would be selected to replace Freer.
In 1978 Moore moved to Christchurch and was elected MP for the north Christchurch electorate, then known as Papanui. He held the electorate until 1999: as Papanui until 1984, as Christchurch North until 1996, and as Waimakariri thereafter.
As a government minister he has held numerous portfolios, becoming best known in his role as Overseas Trade Minister (since 1984) with involvement in the GATT negotiations. In 1987 he also became Minister of External Relations and in 1988 Deputy Minister of Finance. In 1990 he became leader of the Labour Party and consequently Prime Minister for a few months, convincing the Labour caucus that, while he could not win the election for Labour, he would help save more seats than staying with the incumbent, Geoffrey Palmer. The Labour government was not returned to power in the next general election. The circumstances of Moore's installment as Prime Minister would later be compared to the return of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister of Australia.
He led the Official Opposition until 1993 and was spokesman on Foreign Affairs and Trade until 1999. He was dumped as Labour leader after the 1993 election despite leading the party to near victory at that election after only one term in opposition.
As a result of his dumping as Labour leader, he strongly considered forming a break-away party, the New Zealand Democratic Coalition, for the 1996 MMP election but then decided against it. He won his seat in the 1996 election, obtaining more than twice as many votes as the next-highest candidate, National's Jim Gerard.
In 1998, he ran for the post of Director-General of the World Trade Organisation and was elected to this position on 22 July 1999. He took up the post on 1 September 1999; close enough to the 1999 election to not trigger a by-election. The deal with his rival and successor Supachai Panitchpakdi meant that he served only half of the usual six-year term in the post.
Political positions held
World Trade Organization
Mike Moore was the director-general of the World Trade Organisation from 1999 to 2002. His term coincided with momentous changes in the global economy and multilateral trading system. He attempted to restore confidence in the system following the setback of the 1999 WTO ministerial conference held in Seattle. Ministers at the 2001 ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar regarded him as the driving force behind the decision to launch a new round of multilateral trade negotiations—the ill-fated Doha Development Round. That 2001 meeting also saw the successful accession to the WTO of China and Chinese Taipei, which along with Estonia, Jordan, Georgia, Albania, Oman, Croatia, Lithuania and Moldova joined during Mr Moore's term, bringing the majority of the world's population within the rules-based trading system. He gave particular attention to helping poor countries participate effectively in the multilateral trading system.
Later life
Moore became New Zealand Ambassador to the United States in 2010.
He had a heart valve operation in 2014 and was admitted to hospital in Washington DC in April 2015 after a mild stroke. In November 2015, he announced that he would leave his post on 16 December and return to New Zealand due to his deteriorating health.
International services and appointments
Author
Mike Moore is an author of a number of books, on subjects ranging from politics to the Pacific. His most recent book on globalisation, 'A World Without Walls', has also been published in Chinese and Turkish. He has a regular newspaper column that appears in five countries.