WITA will explore what trade policymakers can do to adapt to this new world and contribute through trade initiatives as outlined by Wendy Cutler in her article: Coronavirus: The Need to Adjust and Reshape Our Trade Agenda.
This event will be the first in a series of a events (live and online), cohosted with the Asia Society Policy Institute, discussing the WTO at 25
WITA Webinar Featuring:
Wendy Cutler
Vice President and Managing Director of Washington DC Office
Asia Society Policy Institute
Wendy Cutler joined the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) as vice president in November 2015. She also serves as the managing director of the Washington D.C. Office. In these roles, she focuses on building ASPI’s presence in Washington — strengthening its outreach as a think/do tank — and on leading initiatives that address challenges related to trade and investment, as well as women’s empowerment in Asia. She joined ASPI following an illustrious career of nearly three decades as a diplomat and negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). Most recently she served as Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, working on a range of U.S. trade negotiations and initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region. In that capacity she was responsible for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, including the bilateral negotiations with Japan. She also was the chief negotiator to the U.S.-Korea (Korus) Free Trade Agreement. Cutler received her master’s degree from Georgetown.
Professor Simon J. Evenett
Swiss Institute of International Economics and Department of Economics
University of St. Gallen, Switzerland
Simon J Evenett is Professor of International Trade and Economic Development at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and Co-Director of the CEPR Programme in International Trade and Regional Economics. Evenett taught previously at Oxford and Rutgers University, and served twice as a World Bank official. He was a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Brookings Institution in Washington. He is Member of the High Level Group on Globalisation established by the French Trade Minister Christine LaGarde, Member of the Warwick Commission on the Future of the Multilateral Trading System After Doha, and was Member of the the Zedillo Committee on the Global Trade and Financial Architecture. In addition to his research into the determinants of international commercial flows, he is particularly interested in the relationships between international trade policy, national competition law and policy, and economic development. He obtained his Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University.
Suzanna Fisher
First Secretary (Trade)
Embassy of Australia
Suz Fisher is currently working in the Trade Branch at the Embassy of Australia in Washington DC. Prior to this, Suz worked at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra on electronic commerce and services issues in the Hong Kong Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization. Suz was previously Australia’s lead negotiator on technical goods issues in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Before joining DFAT, Suz worked in the Departments of Agriculture and Industry, Innovation and Science where she worked on Australia’s FTAs with ASEAN and New Zealand, Malaysia, Korea, Japan and China, the expansion of the WTO Information Technology Agreement and the TPP.
Trevor Gunn
Vice President, International Relations
Medtronic
Trevor Gunn is Vice President- International Relations for Medtronic, the world’s largest medical technology company. Trevor Gunn was formerly long-time Director of the Commerce Department’s Business Information Service for the Newly Independent States (BISNIS) the clearinghouse for US Government information for doing business in the former Soviet Union. He has served continuously for the past 26 years, and currently serves, as Adjunct Professor at CERES/School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. He is a Vicennial Silver Medalist. He has worked with the Chamber of Commerce of Southern Sweden, Dover Elevator Corporation (now ThyssenKrupp of Germany), International Executive Service Corps and on the staffs of the former San Francisco Mayor and two U.S. Senators from California. He is the Founder and Chairman of the USA Healthcare Alliance (USAHA). He received his B.A. from University of San Francisco. He received his Ph.D. in International Relations from the London School of Economics in 1992.
Ambassador Alan Wolff
Deputy Director-General
World Trade Organization (WTO)
Alan Wolff began his four-year term as Deputy Director-General on 1 October 2017. Ambassador Alan Wm. Wolff, formerly Senior Counsel at the global law firm Dentons, is one of the world’s leading international trade lawyers. He has been engaged to resolve some of the largest international trade disputes on record. For the last six years he has served as the Chairman of the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) which was called into being by President Wilson in 1914 to support open international trade and which today represents hundreds of American companies who employ millions of workers. He is Chairman of the Board of the Institute for Trade and Commercial Diplomacy (ITCD). Ambassador Wolff served as United States Deputy Special Representative for Trade Negotiations in the Carter Administration and was General Counsel of the Office in the Ford Administration. He was acting Head of the U.S. Delegation for the Tokyo Round, and a principal draftsman of the basic U.S. law creating a mandate for trade negotiations. As Deputy USTR he was a founder of the OECD Steel Committee and its first chairman. He has served as a senior trade negotiator in, and advisor to, both Republican and Democratic administrations. He holds a J.D. degree from Columbia University and an A.B. degree from Harvard College.