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After an illustrious career that has seen him represent his native Uruguay in the United Nations and World Trade Organization (WTO), hold senior positions in the Uruguayan government and take part in high profile negotiations all over the world, one might expect Carlos Perez del Castillo (pictured) to struggle to identify the highlight of his career, but there is no hesitation.
 “The Cairns Group,” he says, referring to the group of South American and Australasian countries that has worked together since the 1980s to put agriculture on the multilateral trade agenda.
In March 1986, Mr del Castillo chaired the meeting of the five countries — Australia, New Zealand, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil — that went on to form the group.
“The idea was not to see each other as competitors, but to pool our resources,” he recalls.
Following the initial meeting, Australia and New Zealand began recruiting other countries in their region, while the South American partners generated support among their neighbours. In August of that year, the group — initially known as the Temperate Zone Non-Subsidising Producing Countries — met in Cairns and was dubbed the Cairns Group by the then Prime Minister Mr Bob Hawke.
“It has developed to be a world diplomatic coalition that has strength and has made a difference and I am very proud to have been a part of it.”
Mr del Castillo spent much of the 1960s in Australia, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (Economics) from ANU, then marrying Australian wife Mariana Philip in 1970, before taking up a position with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in 1971. He held a variety of posts in the United Nations before returning to post-dictatorship Uruguay to work (for a drastically reduced salary, which he admits was a “shock”) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“I could have stayed in the UN until my retirement, but I went home because I felt I could be more useful there,” he says.
“I would advise anyone to try and live by their convictions. Do what you feel you should do even if there are material costs and at the end of the day you can probably look back on your life and know you have been useful.
“I don’t think I have made a difference in many things, but I am happy with what I have done.”
After serving the Uruguayan Government in a number of posts, he eventually found his way back to the UN, serving as Uruguay’s ambassador to the the UN, WTO — where he was Chairman of the General Council — and other international organisations in Geneva from 1998 until earlier this year.
His Australian experiences have played an important role in his life and he hopes his understanding of Australian culture will help
in his bid to be the next Director General of the WTO.
“There are a lot of similarities between Australia and Uruguay. The agriculture is very similar and we are both nations of migrants.
“The Australian way of doing things is very straightforward and to the point and I usually write short things that are to the point.
“I have spent a lot of time here, I’m married to an Australian, I have friends and family here.
“An Australian friend said I’m half Uruguayan and half Australian.”
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